


No Lies, No Secrets

by Golbez



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Badly Written Pesterlogs, Conspiracy, Derse, Gen, POV First Person, Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:18:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Dersite Guard tells of the events that lead to the end of the Skaian War, of how Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido eventually bring the Royalty to their knees, and of his own involvement in a conspiracy spanning all of paradox space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The End

**Author's Note:**

> All right, so, I'm far from finishing this fic, but I've decided to post the first two chapters as motivation to really finish it. Now, the important thing about this fic is that while it's inspired and based on Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido (and the characters themselves do play important roles) the primary focus is on the unnamed guard.
> 
> That aside, the fic itself was inspired almost entirely by No Release.

_The castle's yard is full, a sea of black and white shells dressed in all sorts of colors. This was neutral ground, a place for both Prospitians and Dersites to relax and avoid the terrors of the war outside._

_The yard goes dark, and a hush falls over the crowd. There's a sort of restlessness here, as though the crowd were collectively holding its breath. As though there were something holding them back, but they were ready, oh so ready, to go._

_The silence drags on, and on, the wait is excruciating._

_Then, there's a single note, clear and loud, echoing out of the darkness and washing over the gathered carapacians. Time stands still for a moment, as though disbelieving of this sudden break in the peace of silence._

_Then Time lurches forward, and the crowd roars, music fills the air, and light floods the yard, illuminating the Space._

_And there they are, standing atop the dais-turned-stage. The Prospitian carries a guitar, strums it and lets the music flow. The Dersite dances, weaves a path around and behind the Prospitian._

_Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido. Soldiers. Artists. Rebels._

_The crowd goes crazy at the sight of them, cheering, and when Mobius Trip begins to sing, most of them join right in._

I raised the radio to my mouth, carefully so as not to fall from my perch.

"Unit 422 reporting in. We have visual confirmation, sir. It's them. It's really them."

The response didn't take too long.

"All units, we've got visual confirmation. Those damned traitors showed their faces after all. You all know what to do, so don't fuck this up. And don't forget, the only prisoners we're taking are the leaders. You may begin."

And just like that, hundreds of my fellow Dersite agents dropped into the yard. I followed not long after.

End of the road, Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido.


	2. The Guard

Derse loomed out of the darkness up ahead, a welcome sight after the endless expanse of space. The purple planet was hardly home, after all, I had spent most of my life on the Battlefield. But Derse was Derse, and I owed everything to Derse.

I fiddled quietly with the gun on my lap, barely able to contain my curiosity. How was it that _any_ Dersite could betray Derse the way Hadron Kaleido had done? A cursory glance around the shuttle's hold told me the rest of the team were thinking the same. Everyone seemed more tense than usual, toying with their weapons or moving around restlessly.

"You know," started one of the others, a tall fellow I didn't recognize, "I'm starting to wonder about our, uh, prisoners. I mean like, all they did was make music, right...?"

The question hung in the air, lingering and leaving the rest of us really uncomfortable. He didn't stop though, taking our silence as encouragement.

"I mean, to be honest, their music's actually pretty good -"

He was swiftly cut off by a knife flying through the air and lodging itself in his shoulder. I winced - several of us did, actually - as the sound of carapace cracking filled the room, followed by his screams. A second knife landed in his other shoulder, reducing him to little more than a whimpering mess.

"If you so fucking _love_ our prisoners, then you can join them in the brig." Jack Noir stood at the door separating this half of the shuttle from the more comfortable half. I looked from him to the injured pawn, and found myself wondering why the Archagent didn't just kill him.

Jack strode over to retrieve his knives before gesturing for someone to take the pawn away. A few jumped at the chance to avoid Jack's wrath, hurrying to take the pawn to the brig.

"Anyone else wanna be charged for treason?" snarled Jack, casting glares around at all of us.

I kept my gaze low, avoiding eye contact with him, as did all the others. After a moment of silence, he turned and disappeared back into the front part of the shuttle.

The rest of us? We glanced at each other, let out a collective breath we hadn't known we were holding, and went back to acting like we didn't know each other.

***

I was assigned to the two prisoners' guard detail immediately. The Archagent had apparently been impressed with something I did, as I found myself head of said guard detail.

Most of the proceedings went by smoothly. Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido were transferred to the dungeons below the palace, and left there to await judgement. It wasn't going to be as simple as that though.

I was on my way to hand in some reports when an entourage of white and blue and yellow passed me by. My first instinct was to draw my sword and throw them back into jail, but it didn't take me long to realize I had been mistaken. These were not escaped Prospitian prisoners - this was a group of diplomats. And the White Queen stood among them.

The White Queen was everything our own Glorious Monarch was, yet, they couldn't be any more different.

I couldn't help but hide, flattening myself against the wall, reports pressed to myself. I had never seen such a large group of Prospitians outside of a combat situation before.

They all passed me by without sparing me a single glance. 

Except one. She'd been looking around excitedly at the place, and when she spotted me, our gazes met.

She smiled. I froze, and pressed myself against the wall some more. 

Then she was gone with the rest of the Prospitians.

***

"You called for me, sir?"

I peered into the study from behind the door before stepping in. A good majority of the Prospitians from earlier were present, including, of course, the White Queen. There were plenty of Dersites as well. The Archagent was standing by a desk, behind which was our Glorious Monarch.

Oh hell. 

"Here he is," said Jack, beckoning me over impatiently. "Head of their guard detail."

I quickly shut the door and strode over to him, all the while trying not to look around nervously. A dozen gazes were on me. Including our Queen's. 

"How are the prisoners, child?" Our Queen's smooth voice eased my nerves, and I managed to find the strength to speak.

"They are - fine," I said, though at the glare Jack gave me I quickly elaborated, "That is, they have been no trouble. They appear resigned to their ultimate fate."

"Execution," said the Black Queen, just as the White Queen said, "Exile."

Their gazes met. The room suddenly felt much colder. I tried not to make any noise, though the room was filled with the sound of quills and pens scratching against paper. Reporters. 

"Leave," snarled Jack suddenly, and the room began to clear out. I've never seen the media this obedient - it was likely due to how dangerous the Archagent sounded. In any case, I began to make my way out as well, filing after a group of Dersite reporters, when a dark hand landed upon my shoulder. " _You_ get to stay."

I stiffened as the hand left my shoulder, and I turned to face those left in the room. The Black Queen, the White Queen, Archagent Jack Noir, a bored-looking Prospitian who could only be the Grandlegate of Prospit. I was standing with the four most powerful Carapacians in all of Skaia, and I was severely confused.

"Why is _he_ staying?" voiced the Grandlegate, looking annoyed now. Well excuse you, I'm just as in the dark about this as you are.

Jack ignored him, pacing a little as he spoke. "On the shuttle carrying the prisoners to Derse, one of the pawns who participated in the raid started asking the wrong questions," he said, glancing at our Queen. She nodded, stiffly, as though encouraging him to go on. "It's been two fucking weeks since we captured those two and I've caught over thirty dumbasses asking those same questions. In the offices alone."

"Your point is?" asked the Grandlegate. 

"The point is," hissed Jack, stopping and narrowing his eyes at his counterpart, "Imagine if the guards started asking. Hell, imagine if the soldiers started asking. An entire fucking platoon refusing to fight, the damned Battlefield turning silent - and you know what? It's already fucking started."

"I do believe we would not be able to maintain the war if the pawns were unwilling, yes?" said our Queen.

"This entire damned war effort we've worked so hard to maintain? That's going to fall apart," added Jack.

I looked to him, trying to figure out what he meant, when realization set in.

The war was not real.

" _What?_ " I could not help it, now that I knew what they were talking about. All four looked at me, and I hastily lowered my gaze, mumbling a quick apology for speaking out of line.

The Grandlegate rose, drawing his sword. "It'd be less possible to maintain the war effort if the pawns knew the truth of it either...!"

He advanced towards me, as Noir drew his own sword. My hand moved to mine, readying myself, though I certainly would rather not fight here. The nobility were known for being much more powerful and skilled than any mere pawn like myself.

Both Queens rose from their seats as well, though the Black Queen did not seem interested in stopping any fights. She crossed her arms, gazing intently at the Grandlegate. The White Queen moved and placed a slender white hand on his shoulder.

I tensed, grip tightening on the hilt of my sword.

"Stand down," said the White Queen. "One pawn, particularly a _guard_ will not change anything."

Another tense moment, then he was stepping back and sheathing his sword, bowing his head. Jack snorted, making no motion to do the same, only stepping back. I had a feeling if it had been Jack in that position just now, I would not have been so lucky.

Once the Grandlegate had taken his seat again, the White Queen turned to her twin. "You and your Archagent ought to have a good explanation for this." She nodded in my direction before taking her seat once more.

"Of course, of course," said the Black Queen. "Though you must understand the explanation we owe is not just to yourself, but to our, ah, guest pawn as well." She nodded in my direction, and Jack stepped towards me, the sword still in his hand.

"I'll take care of him," said Jack, and I tensed once more, before he placed his free hand on my shoulder and steered me towards the door, waving the sword pleasantly in the Grandlegate's direction. The door shut behind us to the sound of outraged noises from said Prospitian. As we started toward his office, I realized we had just left our Queen alone with two Prospitians.

"Er -" I started, about to turn back, but Jack seemed to read my mind, his grip remaining firm on my shoulder. It was rather awkward, considering he was much shorter than me, but I managed not to lean too much to his side.

"She can take care of herself," he muttered, "Wouldn't be worth our loyalty if she couldn't."

I wondered if a part of him was hoping she _wouldn't_ be able to take care of herself.


	3. The Legend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter, this one. The next one is much longer, but I've been having trouble with the one after that, so I'm not sure how long before I get to post the next one. In any case, I certainly hope I've written Hadron Kaleido well enough here.

_There are two kingdoms in this realm, one of light and gold, the other of nightmares and darkness. The kingdoms meet atop the checkered battlefield, and thus wage their war with no end. They are waiting, waiting, for the day the slumbering princes and princesses wake, the day the Dreamers roam the streets of their moons and wander the lands that circle Skaia._

_On that day, the kingdom of light shall fall to the kingdom of dark, and Skaia will burn with the flames of a thousand meteors._

_The Dreamers shall do nothing but watch._

***

It was the oddest feeling, to watch a world go by unchanged, when you yourself have changed so much.

Or at least, I felt like I had changed, with the knowledge that Jack Noir had given me. I had stumbled out of his office, mind reeling with new information, world spinning around me, still unable to fully process what I had just learned.

How do you go on living a life that doesn't matter in the end?

It's surprisingly easy. You just do.

And a few days later, with most of it processed and slightly more understandable to me, I had found that nothing had really changed. The world went on. Derse continued its war effort, I continued to come in to work, to guard the rebel leaders in their separate cells, to watch them as they listlessly paced and muttered to themselves. Mobius Trip had even requested a piece of chalk and had since covered his cell in glyphs unknown to us.

The general consensus amongst us guards was that he was just another crazy Prospitian. We mostly left him alone.

Hadron Kaleido, however, was not spared from ridicule for abandoning Derse. My guards made it a habit to sneer and jeer at her, all of which she took in that silent, Dersite pride, and I had a feeling they would have done even worse if Jack Noir had not made it clear no one was to touch the prisoners.

So life went on, and I held the Royalty's secret deep inside me, trying even to put it out of mind so many times. Difficult, and not entirely possible...but I managed. 

The Prospitian entourage stayed, and showed no signs of leaving soon. From the few times I was called in to the meetings, I quickly figured that they were still negotiating the prisoners' fate. For my part, I just went in, reported on Mobius Trip's strange behavior and Hadron Kaleido's muteness, and left. Neither Queens and their ministers made me stay again after that first time, and each time I left that room, I was overwhelmed by the sense that someone was watching me very closely.

Each time, I would brush the feeling away, and make my way back to work, down into the depths of the Derse palace, to the dungeons, where my guards kept their distance, and various prisoners of all kinds waited.

It happened that my shift was with Hadron Kaleido on that day. Though it wasn't required for me to join with my guards in their duties, I still took it upon me to take my turns in watching over some of the more...dangerous prisoners.

I took my post at the desk before her cell, ensuring that I could see everything she was doing, even if, at this point, she had not made a single attempt to escape at all. Or do much of anything, actually. She had become completely mute since entering her cell, and not once had she made a single noise, completely unresponsive to my guards.

In any case, I took my post, and settled for pulling out my notepad and continuing my task to write down all those odd dreams I had started having since that day in Jack's office. They were all very vivid dreams, though I could not remember all the details within them. So time passed, and I wiled away the time with my writing.

"You know the Truth."

I startled at the voice, dropping my pen. It was hoarse from disuse, but distinctly feminine and very clearly coming from the cell nearby.

I took a moment to retrieve my pen, before turning, slowly, ever so disbelieving, to face Hadron Kaleido.

She was looking at me with a blank expression.

"You can speak." It seemed like such a dumb and foolish thing to say, but I couldn't think of anything else, still in surprise at the fact that she had spoken after all this time.

"Why, you can too," she retorted, voice still hoarse. I grabbed the flask on the table and handed it to her. She took a few swigs, before returning the flask to me. "But more importantly, you know the truth."

To admit I knew what she meant would be treason. It was the very thing that Jack Noir had warned me against, but I wanted so badly to admit it - it was clear from her words that she knew the Royalty's secret as well, and...

Suddenly, everything made perfect sense. The rebellion, the songs, how enraged the Royalty were about Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido. It was because they knew what I knew now, and because they had acted on it, unlike me. My grip on the flask tightened as this realization raced through me. Skaia above, the meetings weren't just about Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, they were working on a cover-up.

The price of treason was exile or execution, depending on the gravity of the crime. Leaking intelligence or acting on treasonous knowledge was usually just exile, but for intel such as this? Intel that had been entrusted to me by the Archagent himself? It was execution, for certain.

Curiosity, as usual, drove me to do something I probably should not have.

"You're right," I told her. "I know what the Royalty hide."

And then, she smiled, all sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. "Did the clouds tell you, or did the terrors beyond feed you the information?" She reached for another drink.

I handed her the flask, and she took it gratefully. I grimaced, and told her, "Jack Noir told me."

She stopped mid-sip, then lowered the flask. And then she smirked at me. "Ah, you are a poor fool then," she said, and maybe, had this been someplace else, she would have laughed, "It's a ploy. Mark my words, Guard, you are being used. It would do you well to join us before you find yourself battered and bruised by the whims of a cruel nobility." She chuckled. "It seems to me that while I may be the one behind bars, you are much less free than I am."

I fetched the flask from her, and turned away. I had nothing else to say to her. The Royalty had deemed me worthy to bear this information. Silken words and honey tongues could do nothing to pull me away from them, not now.

"Do not forget what I have told you at your dying hour."

We stayed in silence for the rest of my shift after that, and when the next guard came, I was quick to turn the post over to him.

That night, my dream was much more vivid than usual.

I could not remember any of it the next day.


	4. The Reporter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update? After over a year? I know, I'm surprised too. I told myself I'd stop writing Homestuck works, but I couldn't let this verse go. In the year between the last update and this one, I've been slowly refining the rest of the story. Admittedly, I started this fic without much of a plan, and taking the time to properly work everything out made writing the rest so much easier. But since this chapter is a big turning point in the story - and the longest one so far, to boot - I had to make sure everything would mesh well together before releasing it to the public.
> 
> That said, enjoy!

The dark halls of Derse's palace were busy, as always. Everyone scurrying this way and that to get their job done and keep up the war effort. There was also the upcoming Umbra, when Derse would be furthest from Skaia and at its darkest. Derse usually spent that day praying that the Void creatures wouldn't come after the planet. There would be other things to do, apparently, things I'd never encountered before. Some kind of festivity for a few hours before work resumed. Back on the Battlefield, there would be no festivities, there never were. After all, the war always had to go on.

So yeah, everyone in that room was busy at the time. As such, when a _very_ out of place voice called out - _"Excuse me, excuse me - coming through!"_ \- every head, including mine, turned to look, before turning back to mind our own business. I glanced down at the reports in my hands, idly rereading formulaic words I had memorized a hundred times over to keep myself distracted.

A Prospitian was trying to cut across the offices, late to today's meetings, by the way the papers she was clutching to herself were barely keeping in her grasp. She was one of the reporters that the White Queen had brought with her then, if the quill stuck in her hat meant anything. It'd been almost nine weeks since the capture of the rebel leaders, and still, nothing had been resolved yet.

It had gotten to the point that we were used to seeing Prospitians in the palace, wandering the place, lost and asking all sorts of dumb questions. If Jack Noir was a lazy ass for delegating all his work to his subordinates, the Prospitians were _worse_. They often woke late, or if they got lost they wouldn't bother working too hard in finding their way to where they were supposed to be. They also tended to ask things they weren't supposed to. As it were, the unofficial word was that the Archangent's right hand man, the Draconian Dignitary, was at his wit's end dealing with lost, lazy, and stupid Prospitians.

"Wait, please move -"

"Why don't you just move _your_ ass all the way back to your stupid planet, _you stick of white chalk_."

As everyone realized that a slur had just been flung in public, all the chatter that filled the area died down, and every single Dersite within earshot turned to pay better attention to what was going on.

The Prospitian had clearly bumped into one of the Brutes. Though she was still standing, I didn't think that would last longer, with the way he was looking at her, mouth drawn into a furious curl. Brutes, the worst of the lot left behind on Derse. One would think they would be better off on the Battlefield, but apparently they were only good for security. Nasty fellows, most of them. Just her luck though - the Prospitian girl was as good as dead, if someone didn't do something, soon.

And that someone was going to be me, it seemed, as all the other Dersites slowly turned away, going back to their work and acting disinterested in the debacle going on. They were acting as though nothing were happening, as if a Prospitian reporter protected by diplomatic law wasn't about to get her brains splattered across the floor. I looked around. Everyone but me was doing it.

I stepped out of my line, sprinting a little so I could come to a halt beside the Brute before he did anything drastic. "Back to work," I snarled at him.

"Fuck off," he snapped back, "this little piece of chalk thinks it can walk around our planet like it belongs here. Someone's gotta put it right back in its place."

"I'm a she," said the Prospitian, rather flatly.

"Well, _she_ ," I said, quickly, shooting her an irritated look, "is going to shut her trap right now, and _not_ aggravate the Brute standing right before her any more. She's also going to apologize for not looking where she was going."

A wave of amusement filled the room. Everyone was listening in and clearly trying hard not to laugh at the Dersite Guard standing up to the Dersite Brute for the pretty Prospitian girl. Bastards.

To her credit though, the girl got the hint, though she did look just a tad miffed as she said, "Sorry, mister Brute. Wasn't looking too hard where I was going what with how dark it is around here."

Her thinly veiled insult went straight over the Brute's head, obviously. He scowled, though the anger was starting to leave his face. He looked at me, then at the Prospitian, then back to me, mouth curling into a threatening sneer as he spoke. "Get her outta here 'fore the Dignitary shows up and gets us all in trouble."

Mmhm, because if the Dignitary shows up, you'll have fifty witnesses against your word that you almost brutally murdered a member of the White Queen's entourage, thus single-handedly making the delicate situation that none of you are privy to even worse. Your concern for the girl and the rest of us who'll get caught in the investigation is _most appreciated_.

I rolled my eyes at him, and grabbed the Prospitian by the arm. She protested as I started pulling her along. Well, I wasn't going to get any work done today after all. "C'mon, you," I said loudly, more for everyone else to see that I was _not_ pleased with the way this had gone. With a firm grasp on her forearm in one hand and my reports in the other, I led her off.

"Umm," she said, once we were out of that room, and in a much quieter hallway. Other, less-threatening Dersites gave us curious looks as we passed them, but for the most part we were alone.

"What?" I said, making sure my tone was short and snappy.

"Thank you," she said, after a moment.

I paused, looking at her. Really looking at her. She was giving me a smile, slightly lopsided as it was from her current emotional state.

Oh, I recognized that smile. It belonged to the reporter who had noticed me, all those weeks ago, when the Prospitians had first arrived.

"...it's nothing," I replied, waving my hand in what I presumed was a dismissive manner. We kept on walking for a while, as I lead her through a variety of corridors towards the primary conference room. How did she even get lost so far away from the designated Prospitian rooms? It was as if they were actually _trying_ to get themselves lost. Were they trying to kill us all by pissing off the Draconian Dignitary enough?

Actually, that wasn't too bad of a strategy...

"You can let go of me now, you know," she said suddenly, pulling me out of my thoughts. I came to a halt, then looked down at where my hand was still around her forearm. Right. Of course. I withdrew my hand, and she rubbed it, as though my grip had been _that_ hard. Then she was smiling again.

I ignored her and kept walking, forcing her to follow.

"You aren't very talkative, are you?" she asked me as she caught up, practically bouncing along next to me.

"Mindless chatter isn't one of my usual hobbies," I replied, still walking.

She harrumphed at that, before suddenly looking rather thoughtful. She was also looking at me rather appraisingly, and I was fairly sure I did not like that.

"Stop that," I said, after a while. We passed by a group of the Archangent's 'secret agents' chattering amongst themselves. It wasn't much of a secret that these guys were absolutely loony, and you could identify them by how weird all their clothes were. There was one with a ridiculously tall hat in the group, for example.

"Stop what?" she replied, almost instantaneously.

"Looking at me," I mumbled, realizing how full of myself that made me sound. When I next glanced at her, she had stopped walking, falling behind. I scowled at her. "What?"

Then she laughed, grinning at me. "Oh trust me," she said, "Staring at ugly enemy Guards isn't one of my usual hobbies."

I said nothing further to her, just walking ahead now. What an ungrateful little shit she was being. Did she think all Dersites had the time to just up and leave in the middle of work to escort Prospitians around the castle?

"Okay, okay, that was uncalled for," she said after a while from behind me, "Hey, I don't think they'll let me into the meeting _now_. Why don't we go somewhere else?"

That got my attention. I turned to face her, staring at her with what was likely a really stupid expression. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," I said, "Don't you Prospitians have any sense of _work_? Do you seriously think I don't have anything better to do than walk around with annoying Propsitians? Newsflash, Reporter, I've got plenty of better things to do, so you'll shut the fuck up right now before I do something drastic myself."

She looked - well, surprised at my rant, then she was frowning. She did keep silent after that, thankfully, and it wasn't long before we ran into the Draconian Dignitary.

***

I did not like the way Mobius Trip was staring at me, standing there behind the bars of his cell, dark eyes unblinkingly framed by his white shell.

Just a few minutes longer, I told myself, scribbling down the last of the dreams I could remember. I haven't had any dreams in a while. Not since Hadron Kaleido spoke. She hadn't spoken since either, unless my guards were likewise keeping secrets.

I looked down at my notepad. 'We were all mad,' I had written, 'There is no release from this game but death, and what I saw in continued existence was a fate worse than death."

"You did not have to do it."

Once again, I dropped my pen, shocked by his sudden words. His expression had not changed, nor had he moved from his position right behind the bars.

I sighed, retrieving my pen before addressing him. "What are you talking about?"

"It would have removed us completely without your intervention."

"Silence," I said to him with a stern expression. Well, if any part of me had had any doubts as to how crazy Mobius Trip was by now, then all of those doubts had just been flung right out the window. There was no way he wasn't crazy, considering the nonsense he was spouting.

"You won't be spared in the end."

"Be quiet," I said, looking back down at my notepad. So many questions, too few answers. A part of me itched to tear through the meager amount of literature Derse kept, but I knew it would be futile, in the end. The questions I wanted to ask were too sensitive for the answers to simply be laying about.

"They're using you."

I froze, slowly looking up at him. Hadron Kaleido had said something similar about how the Archagent was only using me, though Mobius Trip was being a lot less comprehensible and direct than her. There was no way they could communicate, not while I was on watch, so clearly there was something else going on here, unless they had both come to the same conclusion about me.

"I will not commit treason," I said to him. He fell silent afterwards, still staring at me as though there were _something_ interesting about me. I was sick of Prospitians doing that, looking at me as if they had any right to.

A part of me could not wait to return to the Battlefield one day, when all I had to worry about when it came to Prospitians was killing as many of them as possible.

He laughed, suddenly. It was a hollow, empty sound, and then he was turning back to the walls of his cell, scribbling things I couldn't understand in chalk.

I started to dream again that night.

***

"So what did you want to meet me about?" asked the Reporter, smiling sweetly at me. She sat across from me, sipping her drink and looking so damn pleased with herself.

We were sitting in one of my favorite bistros, and I was taking a huge risk, in meeting her out in public like this. There were no other customers in the little shop though, and for that I was grateful. It would have been one hell of a pain to have other Dersites staring at us, then act like I was committing some huge crime in fraternizing.

Well, I had a good excuse at hand to use on anyone who dared approach us, though it wouldn't work if the Draconian Dignitary came after us himself.

"I wanted to - to - well. Apologize," I said, after a moment. "So...sorry."

She looked surprised now, blinking at me. What kind of Dersite would ever apologize to a Prospitian? No doubt she was thinking I was some kind of freak now.

Well, she probably wasn't wrong about that. No ordinary Dersite would ever find themselves willingly dragged this deep into the Royalty's secrets, would be in charge of keeping a pair of lunatics from the public, would bring an enemy, no matter how pretty and protected by law they were, out to have lunch together.

She smiled again. "It's fine," she said, "You were right though. I was out of line. All of us were. So far we've been treating this like a vacation, even if our own Queen had warned us against doing such. I guess I didn't really think about it enough. Some reporter I am!"

"Right," I mumbled, not much sure what else there was to say. I didn't know myself why I thought to seek her out. As apology - thanks - _something_ -

"When do you think this entire matter with the rebel leaders will be over?"

I should have realized she would be a natural chatterbox. Blinking, I took a moment to consider her question. "I don't know," I told her, "Maybe never."

"What makes you say that?" she asked, looking interested now.

I paused, thinking it over again. My reasons for saying it would likely never end were highly unacceptable for public conversation. Skaia above, even in private conversation I wouldn't be able to voice any of it. Jack Noir would find out somehow, there was no doubt about it, and I was certain to be dead within the hour.

"Well," I said, stalling a little, "It just doesn't seem like something that can be resolved so easily. Most of the negotiations before this took weeks to work out. It's just, I don't know, fitting that something this big would take months."

"Hmm," she said, looking like she was processing what I had just said, "Go on."

I frowned, thinking it over myself. Maybe it'll never end, after all, they had something to protect.

She suddenly brightened up, dark eyes blinking at me eagerly, and I realized I had said that aloud. "Ooh, you think there's a conspiracy involved?"

"A conspiracy - no!" I said, hoping she wouldn't latch on to that. "Of course not...! I was only thinking - I'm sure the Royalty keep their secrets to protect us. It's not - it's not as if they don't trust us."

We fell into an uneasy silence after that, as I picked at my food in misery while she poked the meat on her plate. Apparently Prospitians didn't eat meat. Freaks, that's what they are. After another moment, she looked up at me again and announced, "I'm not hungry anymore."

I gave her a look that conveyed my utter disbelief at this. She grinned at me.

"I'm not ready to go back to the palace yet though," she said, "Why don't you show me around Derse? Treat me to all the places you're bound to have around here. Show me what it's like here! I've always wanted to know."

My disbelief only grew at her words. It was as if she'd been programmed to cause trouble like this. Making up my mind, I stood. "Are you really just that dense?" I asked her, "You said yourself, this isn't a vacation. C'mon, I'm bringing you straight back to the palace before the Dignitary makes good on his promise to have me made an example."

"You're no fun," she said, but she did oblige me, standing as well.

I could tell, already, what a disaster meeting her like this was going to cause.

***

"You little shit!" shouted the Archagent as he slammed my office door open. I startled to attention, straightening myself and staring at him dumbly, not quite understanding what was going on.

The Dignitary appeared in the doorway, just behind the Archagent, and the stench of cigarette smoke hit me. 

"I'm not sure I know what I -"

A set of papers slammed onto my desk with such force that all my other papers flew off. I blinked, then leaned in, peering at them. It was a Prospitian newspaper.

"Read it," snarled Jack.

"Dersite Guard thinks both Royals are lying to pawns -"

Then he tore the paper away and, when I glanced up, I found myself staring into the face of Jack Noir. A very angry Jack Noir. Now, I've faced down platoons of Prospitians and have been nearly stepped on by a Rook, not to mention spending my time in a Prospitian jail (they're good at torture, especially during feeding time, I'll give them that) but there is nothing more frightening in all of Skaia than the face of a Jack Noir hellbent on killing you.

"Congratulations!" he shouted, "You made it into the fucking papers! Everyone's even fucking talking about you! _What the fuck were you thinking?_ "

"I didn't mean for it - she -"

"She?" hissed Jack, eyes narrowing. 

"The Reporter," supplied the Dignitary, taking a moment to deliberately blow some smoke in my direction. I coughed and waved at the smoke, trying to disperse it. 

"Too bad we can't go after her," said Jack, scowl turning into a grin, and somehow this was even worse than the glare. Though it thankfully turned back into a scowl as he thought of something. "Fuck diplomatic immunity - why the hell did we even agree to that again?"

"It's coded law," said the Dignitary, tone as flat as ever.

"Fuck our coding," said the Archagent, jabbing a knife into the air.

"Don't forget what we came here for now."

"Oh, fuck you," snapped Jack, but the grin was back. "I know what I'm doing."

He turned to me, grin as sharp as every one of his famous knives. A part of me felt accomplished at having managed to piss him off so much. The rest of me was smarter and was rightfully afraid for my life. Unfortunately, that also meant I wasn't going to be moving from my seat any time soon.

"I warned you," said Jack, then he suddenly stepped back. As if he'd calmed down. His gaze was suddenly much sharper, more focused. "DD, get out."

That was unexpected. My gaze flickered to the Dignitary, whose impassive expression had not changed. Slowly, he turned from me, towards his superior. "...sir."

"You heard me," said Jack, "Out. I'm interrogatin' him myself. Don't need your overdramatic shit gettin' in the way."

Were he any other less dignified Dersite, the Dignitary would probably have stomped out while screaming curses at this insult to his role and purpose. As it were, Jack Noir hellbent on killing you may be the most frightening thing in all of Skaia, but there were reasons we all feared the Dignitary's wrath on a day to day basis. His lips became a thin flat line, and he dropped his cigarette before turning around and leaving, crushing the cigarette with his heel on the way out.

Once the door was shut, Jack Noir suddenly sat down and propped his feet up on my desk. "So," he said, sounding as pleasant as Jack Noir could possibly be considering that dangerous look in his eyes, "Let's talk about codes for a bit, eh, guard?"

I nodded, resigned to the fact that I was probably going to die soon.

"S'what I told you before. Codes make the world work. Remember that, guard?"

I nodded again. He gave me an expectant look, and I somehow managed to find my voice to repeat what he told me several weeks ago in just a few, expletive-less words. "Dersites are the gears to Derse's clock. Prospitians are the gears to Prospit's clock. Without either the war doesn't exist, but without the codes nothing exists."

"And?"

"...And only the Dreamers are exempt from the codes."

He grinned. "Aren't you the good little student? One just has to wonder 'bout ya."

My voice fled me again. I didn't like the way he said that.

"Awfully curious for just a pawn," he hissed, any pretense of pleasant conversation dropped as he began to rise from his seat, "A liar, too. Ya really expect me to believe you told that Prospitian bitch all that by accident, or because she tricked you? No, you're either glitched or - something else."

Glitched. One of the worst insults you can throw at someone, because it means they're a mistake in the grand machine of Skaia. And all mistakes are eventually fixed or removed. Skaia has its ways.

"The question is, what the fuck are you? I know what I am, I know what DD is, I know what our goddamn Glorius Monarch is, not to mention everyone else on this stupid planet..." he trailed off, and I kept still.

"Point is, you're turning into a wild card at this point." Jack nodded, more to himself than to me, as if he'd figured some great secret out. I was barely registering what he meant, just a little more than alarmed at the fact that he was waving his knife around again.

Then he was slamming his hands on my desk and leaning in, close enough that I could count his razor-like teeth. I found myself wishing that I could disappear. 

"And y'know what's the easiest way to deal with somethin' ya can't control?" He paused for a moment, then answered his own question. "You eliminate it."

He lunged. I moved aside in fright. Horrible, excruciating pain spread from my shoulder, and I screamed.

Except Jack began stuffing paper into my mouth, and it wasn't long before I began to choke. 

My vision swam. I couldn't breathe there was something over my face I could hear soft laughter

I heard a door slamming open but it was distant I heard a voice shout joined by several others

and i heard a horrible voice like a million dying pawns speaking all at once

and it said

_this is your life_

_now keep it_


	5. The Dreamers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it ain't deadfic till it's tagged as deadfic

"You hear them too," she said, and her dark eyes were like windows into the void beyond Derse. Immeasurable and unfathomable monsters danced in this void, their shapeless bodies taking form from our fears. 

"No," I said, and this was the truth.

She looked surprised by this, pursing her lips and blinking those dark windows a few times. Then the void left her eyes. "I'd expected a Void player to hear them better than I can. In any case, we have to meet with the others soon."

I nodded. Somewhere in the void, a monster was shifting and lifting itself out of cosmic waters. It shivered, and stars fell like drops from its grand form, back into the well of life and death below it. A universe was born.

"I don't think I'm ready," I told her. The more I thought about meeting our friends, the more scared I was getting. Neither of us had ever met them face to face, much less spoken to them in person. I _wanted_ to meet them, but now I had no other options, had no choice in how I was to meet them. I had lost complete control over our circumstances.

I was scared of what they might think of me once we met.

The universe in the void grew and grew, lifetimes and generations went by at the edges of my vision. Civilizations flourished, peaked, then withered away. Entire races came into being, then faded away into obscurity. The universe grew, then began to shrink, drawing in on itself as it began its last cycle.

"I don't think they're ready either," she said, smiling. "They were both nervous when I last spoke to them. I imagine the Prospitians are beside themselves taking care of them."

I imagined, for a moment, a number of Prospitians running around like spooked chickens, rushing to fulfill the whims of the Bard and the Maid. I grinned. "Their version of Jack Noir is probably freaking out like no tomorrow."

At Jack Noir's name, her expression darkened. Monsters descended upon the dying universe, tearing away galaxies and systems. Stars and dust and planets broke free, falling back towards their universe. The monsters caught them immediately after, drawing them to their twisted lips, consuming them.

Elsewhere, another monster shook and rose. Stars fell from it. Another universe was born.

"You need to stop talking to that jerk," she said, frowning.

I laughed. She trusted the Archagent about as far as she could throw him - which was actually probably kind of far, considering how tiny he was compared to her, but let's pretend she can't actually do that. The monsters who had feasted went their way, leaving behind an expanse of nothing, ripe and ready for the new worlds that would arise.

I trusted him even less.

"We should go," I said, smoothing my face into a neutral expression. "Frankly, I'm not ready to meet them yet, but I'd rather get this over with."

She nodded, and seemed about to speak before suddenly catching herself. I gave her an inquiring look, and she raised a hand elegantly, pointing at something behind me.

I turned in midair, and saw rows upon rows of Dersites, looking up at us. Waiting. 

It was time.

* * *

She smiled when she spotted me, and her eyes gave way to clouds, and an endless Battlefield of checkered black and white.

"Hey, DG," she said.

I hesitated, then smiled back. "PR."

"You're taller than I expected."

I laughed. Clouds drifted by in the world beyond, where light reigned, unfathomable to me. A part of me cried out in envy and rage that the place she knew was a place I could never reach.

I blinked and shook the vision away, trying to focus on more than just her eyes. "And you're shorter than I expected," I told her, and her smile grew wider.

"I didn't think HK would be so tall either," she said. "Maybe it's a Derse dreamer thing."

"Maybe," I said. "How's MT treating you?"

Here she giggled. "Fine, just fine. He's a real gentleman! You might learn a few things from him."

I snorted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Whatever she had been about to say though, was lost. An explosion rang out over Prospit. Alarmed, we looked at each other, then, in silent agreement, flew off towards the golden planet together.

I saw her fly past me, speeding up as we approached the growing ball of smoke -

I woke up.

* * *

HK: The Prospitians mourn.  
HK: We must carry on.  
HK: He will be fine without a dreamself.  
HK: One more thing.  
HK: Should any of the Prospitians greet you.  
HK: You must respond accordingly with.  
HK: The Bard is dead.  
HK: All is lost to Time. 


	6. Eve

I gasped for breath, feeling as though I had just clawed my way through endless depths, before finally surfacing in the present. 

"Help -" I choked out, sitting up. My vision swam, and I felt a hand resting on my back, supporting me. I groaned and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Easy now," said a soft voice I could not recognize.

"Is he well?" asked another voice, smooth but sharper. Familiar.

"He will be," replied the first. The hand on my back began to stroke my bared shell, soothing and calming me.

"I take solace from knowing such." The second voice paused, then continued. "I did not think...his attacker would act so rashly."

"Forgive my asking, but will we be safe from him?" The hand at my back disappeared. 

"Do not worry, child. My Archagent can never harm anyone ever again, I have seen to it."

 _My_ Archagent! Horror rose in my gut as I realized then whom the second voice belonged to.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked up, my mind suddenly much clearer. In exchange for such clarity though, I felt like ice had gripped me. I was sitting in one of the bedrooms in the palace, and before me...

"I'm pleased to see you are awake," said the Black Queen. She turned to the Nurse beside her. "Leave us, dear, your patient and I have important matters to discuss."

The Nurse bowed his head and said something I couldn't catch, then offered his thanks to the Queen. She waved a hand dismissively, and he was quick to scurry out the room, leaving the Queen and me alone.

She was watching me, and I could not help but stare back. After a long moment, she stepped forward and sat down by the foot of the bed, and finally broke the silence.

"I certainly trust that you have rested well," she said.

I nodded, unable to find my voice. She smiled, and warmth filled me, but it was far from comforting. Her eyes carried a sinister glint, a dark air surrounding her that I had never really noticed. Had she always been this frightening, or was it something in me that had changed the way I saw her?

"Good, good," she said, her smile growing slightly wider. Then her expression turned into sorrow, but I had no way of knowing if it was feigned or not. "You've caused quite a stir, my dear."

"I...I guess I have," I said, my voice finally returning to me. Shame suddenly filled me, and I lowered my gaze. I had worried my Queen and made her come to me, a lowly pawn. I had caused our Glorious Monarch distress and distraction. I was a failure of a Dersite, an utter fool who had defied my orders and coding. A mistake in the grand machine. An error in Skaia's work. A glitch.

A slender hand came into view, resting over one of my own hands. I looked up to find the Black Queen leaning closer to me, though she had not moved from where sat.

"Guard," she said, and she was still smiling, so kind and warm. "What would you like to happen to you now?"

I blinked. Why was she even asking something like that? I knew my fate. I would be erased by Skaia, but not before being executed for my crime against the crown.

"I...I expect I'll be punished," I said, unable to suppress a little sigh.

" _Punished?_ " she asked, looking just a little confused.

"For slipping up to the Prospitian Reporter," I said, a little confused too. "...and I caused so much trouble. Er, Your Majesty."

"No reason to start with formalities now!" She laughed, and I wondered if I were still unconscious, still dreaming. The Black Queen was sitting across from me, insisting on informality and laughing like we were old friends. I was about to say something, to ask her what all of this meant, when she suddenly shifted in her seat, moving closer, leaning in further, and asked me, "Would you like to become a higher Agent, my dear?"

"...I don't understand," I said, the first thing, the only thing, I thought to say.

I mean, what else was there to say to a question like that?

"I'm sorry, I should have explained." She shook her head, looking apologetic. "There's been an opening among the elite Agents. I am offering it to you, Guard."

This was not what I expected. I stared at her dumbly for a moment, my brain trying to catch up with her words. The part of my brain that was quicker than the rest started screaming _TAKE IT_ at me, willing my mouth to form the sounds of the word "yes" before this opportunity slipped me by. Who cares what this would entail, I could think about that later. What mattered was jumping at this chance and bowing to the Queen. Promotions like this were unheard of in Derse - true promotions, not the sort that meant simply being shuffled to a different post with a fancier name, like being moved from the Battlefield to a guard detail in Derse. This was a promotion that would defy our coded roles.

I should take it. I should open my mouth and say, _yes, I would be honored to be your Agent_. I should climb out of bed and get on my knees and grovel and cry and thank my Glorious Monarch for her kindness. I would have power, real power over other pawns. I could be equal to the Draconian Dignitary. I could have the Reporter's head for her lies to me. I could curry favor with the Queen and become trusted above all. I could end the entire issue with the rebellion.

I could end this war one day, be it with awakened Dreamers or not.

I opened my mouth and said: "And who'd you remove to create that opening?"

The look on her face tells me all I need to know, even as anger smoothed itself back into a neutral, friendly look.

"Does it matter?" she asked, and here she finally removed her hand from mine, pulling back and straightening herself. She folded her hands in her lap, all in one motion, as graceful as expected of her. "Do you not realize I am giving you a choice?"

A choice? She would give me a choice? I've never had to make a single choice in my life. What did she expect from me?

But who had she removed to be able to offer this to me? Every Dersite was created to fulfill a role. Whoever this was, it was an unfortunate one. To lose your life was nothing on Derse, but to lose your role, to have your purpose stripped from you, as if you were a broken toy...

_My Archagent can never harm anyone ever again, I have seen to it._

...I'm a dumbass.

"It's Jack Noir, isn't it?" I said, and I saw her eyes widen for a moment, her posture stiffen, her breath hitch.

She narrowed her eyes at me, her mouth a thin line against her dark shell, no longer the pleasant smile she had been offering but a moment ago. "You ask too many questions," she said, standing.

"What did you do to Jack Noir?" I asked. I pulled at my blankets, making to quickly stand as well. I was met with pain in my shoulder, where Jack Noir had stabbed me. An injury from the same man I was now defending against our own Queen.

"What do you care about him, Guard?" she asked, "He tried to kill you. Do you not hate him?"

I hesitated, partially because my shoulder was making it difficult to steady myself. "I do hate him."

"Then why do you not take my offer to become an Agent of mine?"

Because _no one_ deserved to be stripped of their role. _No one._ I looked up at her, into her eyes, about to answer, and that was when realization came over me.

Why had Jack Noir been so angry with me? Well, yes, I disobeyed his direct order, but what warranted so wild a reaction? His lecture on coding, his insistence to kill me because I couldn't be controlled...

_Everyone's even fucking talking about you!_

Had that one article by a lying Reporter made others start thinking and questioning what was going on in the palace? If Jack Noir had killed me, and word had gotten out, what would that have made me?

Would I have just been another stain on Dersite ground? Would I have been forgotten? Or would I have been a martyr?

It was worth a bluff. I looked up now, gazing right into the Black Queen's eyes, staring her down. "You can't control me, can you? You _need_ me," I said, "You kill me and you validate everything I said to the Reporter."

She warped then into something I had never seen before - a Queen who hated me, who saw that I was unfit for her purposes. The Black Queen before me was no longer the loving monarch I had always known her to be. She drew herself to her full height, towering over me, using every bit of her intimidating nature against me. I could never touch her, she knew this just as much as I did, but I could defy her.

"You are correct," she said after a long pause. "The crown can no longer control the symbol that you have become. However..."

She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. The door behind her opened, and in came the Draconian Dignitary, a pair of Brutes flanking him.

I began to back away.

"...you overestimate your value to me, Guard," she finished. She waved a hand in my direction, prompting the Brutes to come forward, stepping around her to get to me.

"Think you can escape from us with a shoulder like that?" said the Dignitary.

The Brutes advanced toward me. I backed into the wall. A glance around told me I was trapped.

"Jack _was_ rather precise," commented the Queen.

They were right, my shoulder was a hindrance in this situation, and I had no weapon. Nor was there anything around me I could use to fend for myself.

Not that it would do me any good. The Brute to my left reached out to grab me, but I quickly dodged to the right. Unfortunately, this led me right into the other Brute's grasp. He closed a massive hand around my arm and jerked me towards the Queen. I screamed - my arm felt as if it were being pulled off - my shoulder -

A fist met my lower torso, knocking the wind out of me. I coughed and slumped in place, wincing as my shoulder burned with pain. 

"Usually," said the Queen, "This is where I would advice you to surrender so that you may still live and join me."

I forced myself to look up, towards her. She had no expression, not even a scowl, as she stepped closer. I groaned, and lowered my gaze. I had no more energy to defy her that way, with locked gazes and ready insults. There would have to be other ways.

"Look at your Queen when she speaks to you," said the Dignitary. Hah, as if I were suddenly going to start complying with _his_ orders again.

I heard someone snap their fingers. I kept my gaze down, unsure what it meant, when thick fingers wrapped around my neck from behind.

And squeezed.

I _would_ have gasped, but I was a little busy suffocating. It had the intended effect though, and I quickly found myself looking up at the Queen again as I struggled for breath and wiggled around futilely. She was still wearing that blank expression, but there was just that little hint of a smile in her narrowed eyes.

"Much better," she said, and I felt the hand around my neck loosen its grip, but it stayed there, daring me to look down again. The Queen stood mere inches away from me, and I could do nothing as she reached down and gently touched my cheek. "As I was saying, you've made your decision clear, most unfortunately. As it is, you've wasted enough of my time. I shall not bother repeating my offer."

I turned my head and snapped at her fingers. She was faster than I had assumed, pulling her hand back and bringing it to a rest at her side in a flash. The fingers around my throat tightened again, I choked, struggling for breath, until the Queen barked at the Brute holding me to stop.

I inhaled, long and deep. The Brute's hold was uncomfortable, but no longer too restrictive. I glanced up at the Queen. Her eyes were narrowed further, her mouth drawn back in an angry snarl. The Dignitary to her right had a gun in his hand, cocked and aimed right at me. I hadn't even heard its click.

I couldn't help but grin at this reaction I had received. They knew as well as I did that I could not have actually harmed her, my teeth were too dull for that, and I would not have been capable of closing my jaw around her shell with enough force to crack it. I would have paid for the pain in double and my body would have shut down right after. No one can touch our Glorious Monarch without suffering for it immediately.

"I've already accepted that I'll be punished," I said, "Why don't you do so?"

So much for keeping silent. I could just hear the Reporter's voice now, _Gosh, you never know when to shut up, do you?_

The Queen laughed, before settling her expression into a smile that somehow showed off every pointed tooth. "Oh _trust me_ , Guard, you _will_ be punished, just perhaps, not quite in the manner you expect."

"Try me," I said.

A pause as my words lingered in the air, then she smiled her pretty, charismatic, public smile.

"All right then," said the Queen.

* * *

I grunted as I hit the floor, feeling the carapace on my injured shoulder crack open. I was probably bleeding again, I couldn't tell. All I could feel was the sheer coldness of the obsidian colored marble beneath me.

There was a terrible creaking sound somewhere behind me, then the slamming of heavy steel against its frame.

This was followed by footsteps, fading away with each passing second. I stayed where I was even when silence reclaimed the room. I lay there, unable to move from the way the Brutes had taken special care to be as rough as possible when they were dragging me from the clinic to the dungeons.

It was a long moment before I managed to slowly pick myself up, and even then it was only from the faint sound of metal clinking against metal and of carapace shuffling against marble. Someone else was in my cell.

I looked up, and saw that that someone was Jack Noir.

* * *

Three days later - I kept track by counting whenever food arrived for me - and I was laying by the bars of our cell, musing on my misfortune and how I still was getting nowhere with freeing Jack (or myself).

He'd been chained to the wall by his legs, and his arms had likewise been shackled, though those chains were just long enough to allow him some minor freedom of movement. Some kind of metal device had been placed over his mouth, gagging him. The thing itself was complicated looking enough that I still wasn't sure on just how to remove it.

Deterring me was also the fact that when I'd first tried to remove that thing, Jack had shoved a finger into my stab wound. Then he used my blood to write a slightly wonky 'FUCK OFF' on the floor while I lay there shrieking from the pain.

So, needless to say, I haven't tried to take that stupid gag off him since then.

The sound of metal smacking into metal brought me out of my thoughts. Jack was trying to get my attention again. I hadn't spoken to him or gone near him since that first day either. He might have been chained to the wall, but I wasn't taking any chances. For all I knew, Jack could have come up with a way to escape that involved sacrificing or killing someone else. Namely, me.

I did wonder though, if he knew that the Queen had tried to have me replace him, and if he knew I'd stood up for him instead of taking the job. 

Clang, clang. He was getting better at this, and louder. I raised my head a little, just enough to glare at him. To my surprise, he actually stopped shaking his chains around.

Let me tell you, it actually felt good to do that. In no conceivable situation before this entire big mess could I have glared at the Archagent of Derse that freely and openly without losing a limb in the process.

I sighed as I lay back down, counting the seconds before he started making noise again. It wasn't as if anyone was going to come. In the three days that I'd been here, not a single guard had appeared. Not even any of the other guard captains. Only Brutes came to our cell, always roughly two hours after feeding time and mostly just to check that we were still here. My mandated daily slab of meat came in through the transportalizer in one corner of the cell.

Speaking of...it _has_ been roughly two hours since feeding time. So where was today's Brute?

Ah, there he was. I could just make out the distant but heavy footsteps that signalled a Brute's arrival. I sat up and scooted away from the bars. On the second day I had apparently been sitting too near to the bars and the Brute had taken the opportunity to kick me around for a bit.

That was an experience I would rather _not_ repeat, so I moved away just enough for both Jack Noir and the bars to be out of my reach.

I watched as the Brute opened the door across the room before peering in at us. I sat there looking as gloomy as I could. Hopefully he'd think I was wishing for a waste receptacle to transportalize my head away with. Maybe if word got to the Queen that I wasn't even trying to escape she'd let me out.

(Pft, right. Then what do I do? Beg her to reconsider?)

The Brute scowled at me, but it seemed that my seating arrangement satisfied him, since he was quick to step back and shut the door a moment later.

And, right on cue, there was Jack hitting his chains against the wall again.

Once I couldn't hear the Brute anymore, I crawled back to my spot beside the bars, and fell asleep.

* * *

I woke with a jolt.

I wasn't sure what woke me. The lights in the room had been dimmed, making the already windowless, dark-floored and purple-walled room even darker than it seemed. The only light in the room was from outside, coming in through the tiny window on the door.

A glance over at my room mate told me that he was asleep. He'd probably exhausted himself out.

The sound of footsteps caught my attention, but it wasn't likely whoever was out there was going to come in here. Nevertheless, I pulled myself to my feet using the bars, wincing at the way that hurt my shoulder.

That was when I felt it.

It started as a faint buzzing at the back of my mind. Then it grew louder and louder, until it was a song of destruction and futility, of death and calm, of the birth of universes and the demons that ate them.

It was a song for the sons and daughters of Derse, the princes and princesses who slumbered within obsidian towers. It was a song for Dreamers of Derse.

And I was hearing it for the first time ever.

It must have been the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

I wept.

And when I was done and wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked up and realized I could once again _See_...

My vision was clear, clear as black glass. I could see the points of absolute darkness around me, where no Light could shine, these were areas of safety and refuge from prying eyes imbued with Light.

My vision was unlimited. I could see beyond the walls, past that steel door, and even further beyond that, I could see into the vast empty space around Derse. The longer I concentrated, the more I felt like - taking a step -

I blinked. I was outside my cell, standing just past the bars. My head began to hurt as the void creatures' song grew even louder.

How did I do that? Did I really just have to...take a step...

I was outside our cell room, standing by its door. The corridor was just barely lit, but it was brighter than inside our cell. I turned to look at our door, and jolted in surprise when I saw a big black hole where its hinges should have been.

That wasn't right. I reached out and touched the door, sliding my palm over the hinges. The hole seemed to part for my hand, revealing that the door was, in fact, perfectly fine.

I glanced around. There were no guards around. I frowned and turned back to the door, concentrating once again.

I could just barely see Jack, and no matter how much I tried, I could get no further than a faint silhouette of him. Instead, the empty space around him began to stand out to me more and more, pulsing in its nothingness as it beckoned to me.

I stepped into the hole, and this time I was aware of what was happening. I had slipped into the tiny space between the door and its frame, blinking into non existence in the process. I had entered the world - no, I had entered the void between things.

The void swirled around me, clusters of darkness that represented different points of space. I had entered this void through one of them, and I could choose whichever one I wanted to slip out through.

I pushed forward, and lost my balance as I fell between bars and into our cell.

I was in the middle of getting to my feet when I felt Jack's gaze on me.

I turned around to face him. He sat there completely still, and I could barely make out his expression - eyes wide circles as he stared at me. I could just imagine that he wanted to say, _how the fuck did you do that?_

"Jack," I said, before striding over to him and focusing my gaze on the gag. My vision shifted, and I was looking at a silhouette of the gag's inner mechanisms. It was suddenly clear, what parts I had to move first to unlock it.

Clang! I blinked, and my sight was back to normal. He was still staring at me, but his eyes were narrowed, angry.

I gave him a grin in response.

"Hold still," I told him, "I'm getting us out of here."


	7. The Rebels

I watched as Jack tore into my daily piece of meat, his teeth sharp enough to shred it all in moments. Aside from the obvious purpose of keeping those teeth in check, the gag had been there to starve him. It wasn't as if he would have died without food, but that was exactly what made that kind of torture so effective.

I waited until he was almost done before saying, casually, "She tried to give me your job, you know."

He paused, then swallowed the last piece of meat before leaning back and stretching out his arms. I could barely make out his expression in the near total darkness. For some reason, the lights had never come back on.

"Well, what a huge bitch," he said after a moment, his voice grating out of the dark.

I couldn't help but stare at where he probably sat for a moment - such a nonchalant response was unlike him. In fact, ever since I managed to take off his gag and unlock his shackles, he hadn't been acting like himself at all. 

"We should go now," I said, standing, "So we don't run into any Brutes."

He stood as well, stretching for the umpteenth time in the past few hours. His way of showing how much he appreciated freedom of movement now, I suppose.

"Guard," he said, even though that wasn't my title anymore, "You worry too fucking much."

"We're about to break out of jail. How can I not be worried to death about that?"

He laughed, then pointed at the door across the room. "How much longer till the Brute shows up?"

I paused, trying to estimate the time. "An hour, I think," I said, "Maybe an hour and a half tops."

"Okay," said Jack Noir, and he sat right back down. "Might as well take a nap, Guard. You're gonna want to be properly rested and wide, wide awake when he arrives, y'know?"

"What?" I asked, but he was already curled up on the floor, ignoring me. "Dammit, Jack."

I frowned as I looked his still body over. Had he really gone to sleep, so quickly? How could I rest now? When we were so close to our escape? When a Brute would be coming soon, and then he would notice that Jack was no longer chained, would tear the gate open to beat us both to near death - who could sleep at a time like this?

I decided I might as well spend the rest of the time exercising my new ability, my _Sight_...

_...she was made of skin drawn tight over flesh, not like the harsh shell of the carapace servants. Her fingers were entwined with mine as we hovered near the golden wreckage that was Prospit's moon. I could feel her tense, could hear her say something, but I couldn't make it out, couldn't tell what she was saying._

_And she was shaking, her body racked by sobs. Then she was screaming and lurching forward, completely disregarding me, forgetting I had her by the hand. I pulled her as she tried to fly down to the burning gold, to the place she had dreamed of as her second home. I pulled too hard, too quickly - she slammed into me, sending us both careening into empty space. I wrapped my arms around her._

_Derse was so far away now. Too far away. I had only one place to go with her, one place where we would be safe. Whatever it was that had wreaked havoc upon Prospit likely hadn't counted on its beloved Maid being away from her Slumbering Tower at the time._

_I caught myself on a piece of golden debris, holding her sobbing body tight against me, then I swung myself toward the bright planet at the center of this all, the Battlefield that stood at the center of all of Paradox Space, Skaia..._

...I gasped into wakefulness.

I sat up and took in my surroundings, a sense of anticipation suddenly filling me. Something was about to happen. It was still dark.

Jack was standing by the bars, his silhouette barely visible.

I groaned and reached out, grasping the wall near me, and pulled myself to my feet. I felt - weak - no, not weak. I felt as if I had fallen out of sync with the world, that I was no longer keeping time with everything else. This was the source of my strange lack of strength.

"How long?" I mumbled, as I staggered closer to Jack, though I kept myself near the wall, resting a hand on it to keep me steady.

"At least an hour," he replied, "Brute's gonna be here any minute now."

I sighed. "You are _way_ too calm for this to make sense. What's going on, Jack?"

He turned his head ever so slightly, grinning. "An entire plan falling into place is what's going on."

"Plan?" I looked between him and the bars as my mind immediately went to the worst possibility. It was the worst not because it was particularly terrible, but it was the worst because it would mean that all of Derse had been played like fools all along. "You're...you're not actually a rebel are you, Jack?"

"The hell do you take me for?" He laughed, and once again grinned, but wider, showing off those blade like teeth of his that I was, unfortunately, far too familiar with by now. "I ain't a rebel, I'm something worse. Now, use those eyes of yours to look outside the room for a moment would you."

That certainly wasn't the response I wanted or expected, but I turned away anyway. Surely there was something important he wanted me to look at.

"What's worse than a rebel?" I asked, even as I stepped up to the bars. If Jack answered, I didn't hear it, because in an instant my vision was filled with the void. Practice was paying off after all.

As I stood there though, a little thought slipped its way through the cracks. Could I trust Jack Noir and this plan of his, whatever it involved?

I didn't trust him. I trusted him about as far as I could throw him.

But still I looked outside - and gasped.

"Whatcha see?" Jack's voice cut through the haze of the my Sight.

It was the silhouette of Mobius Trip. I knew it was him because he was coming down the corridor with a guard detail of four pawns and two brutes. As they neared, I could hear their footsteps growing louder, accompanied by the rattling of the chains that kept Mobius Trip's wrists and legs bound. I took a moment to relay the information to Jack, who looked quite thoughtful.

"They chained him up, huh," he said. "All right, keep watching them. Shout soon as they're right outside."

I did as I was told. It'd always been easier that way. Even as I focused on the nearing silhouettes though, I heard Jack moving behind me, followed by the sound of him picking up those chains of his that I'd broken. As Mobius Trip neared though, apprehension flared in me. I had no control over whatever was about to happen, only _when_ it would happen, and for some reason I had the feeling that I would only get one chance at this. I sucked in a breath, and watched as they neared, listened as the rattling of chains grew and grew and...

Mobius Trip's silhouette stepped right before the door. His guards moved in time with him, at a steady pace.

"Jack!" I shouted, and immediately I heard that _clang clang clang clang clang_ ring out from behind me.

Before me, Mobius Trip sprung into action.

I watched in awe as he stretched his arms, the chain between his wrists immediately snapping. He spun around, both halves of the chain growing longer on their own as he knocked them into guards around him. All four pawns went down, their startled shouts filling the air. They'd been caught off guard - _tsk, lazy fuckers_ \- leaving the Brutes to catch the chains with their bare hands.

The Brutes began to pull, each standing on opposite sides of Mobius Trip. He rose into the air as his arms were pulled straight by the Brutes's efforts, and he dangled there for a single moment. A single moment before the Brutes would use all their strength to pull and simply tear off his arms. A single, dangerous moment where Mobius Trip laughed.

"Might be smart to start checking your prisoners' strife specibi," he announced, loud enough for even me and Jack to hear.

Mobius Trip jerked both his arms back ever so slightly, and I didn't know if it was his sheer strength or something to do with the chain itself, but both ends of the chain slipped out of the Brutes' grasps. He swung himself before he could fall to the floor, too fast for either standing guard to react, and then he kicked at them. 

The chain between the shackles on his legs that was meant to keep him from running? It snapped apart like it was nothing. I watched as he sent the last two guards to the floor, hopefully only knocked out.

Then he turned and looked directly at me.

I withdrew with a yelp, returning to my normal vision, but once again I yelped in surprise, this time jumping back. Jack had come to stand directly before me, staring me directly in the eyes. It was not a very pleasant sight to come back to.

"D-don't do that," I said. He shrugged.

"Don't keep me in the dark now - heheh - the hell was all that noise?"

At any other time I might have grumbled about his little joke, but right now I had something else to care more about. Except, just as I opened my mouth to speak, the door opened, and in came Mobius Trip, chains trailing from the shackles still around his wrists and legs. His white carapace was a stark contrast to the dark walls of the room.

"Ready to get going, Noir?" he asked. Then he paused, and seemed to reassess the sight before him. "Okay, pretty sure the plan didn't involve breaking _two_ Dersites out of jail...hey, don't I know you?"

"We've spoken," I said. "Jack, what the hell is going on - "

"He's head of your guard," supplied Jack, ignoring my question.

"Ah yes," said Mobius Trip. He chuckled. "The guard who won't commit treason. Kinda strange to find you in here, then."

I looked between him and Jack, and asked, again, _"What the hell is going on?"_

"We'll explain later," said Jack, and at my doubtful expression, he added, "I swear it on my Archagent code. Now hurry up and fucking help me with this."

He moved to help Mobius Trip start wrapping his chains around several bars of our cell. I stood there for a moment longer. The promise of an actual, proper conversation about what was going on...I made to join them without knowing why they were doing that. As I did so, I realized I had, by now, come to terms with my little act of betrayal in defying the Queen and defending Jack. I had no love for her anymore, and I owed her no loyalty, not since she'd shattered her own image as a perfect and unfailing monarch to me. 

But even if I'd come to term with the fact that I had committed treason, that didn't stop the twinges of guilt in me. I had angered my _Queen_ , and I had - no, I shook my head as I finished with another chain. I was done with her.

How terrifying it was, now that I'd had it happen to me, to have some distant unknown code in you dictate what you say and feel without your knowing.

Was this what Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido had been singing about all along? How many pawns had been there at their final concert, and all those before, because their songs had spoken to them for this very reason?

"Stand back," said Mobius Trip, and Jack kindly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the far end of the cell, where all his own chains and shackles still lay. I found myself staring at the bloody FUCK OFF on the floor when we stopped.

Mobius Trip whistled. "I really wish I could have done this to my own cell."

Wait, what? I looked up just in time to see him run toward the door, and with the ends of his chains each wrapped around a bar of _our_ cell. There was a terrible creaking noise as Mobius Trip stopped and, hands around the chains on his end, pulled - and then the entire row of bars simply popped right out of the wall as if it had always been designed to do that.

I was staring and slack jawed by the time he was tossing the bars against the wall beside him.

Jack still had his hand around my arm, and he promptly steered me back toward Mobius Trip. "We better get going, Bard."

Mobius Trip didn't move. He was looking at me, frowning deeply. "How do we know he won't betray _us_?"

Of course, there was no way to prove I wouldn't. I sucked in a breath and was about to start defending myself when I was, surprisingly, beaten to it.

"He won't," said Jack. "No way he's gonna after breaking me out. And he hates the queen too."

"Careful, Jack, you sound almost fond of him." Suspicion was plain on Mobius Trip's face. I frowned back at him.

"Jack is right. She is not my Queen," I said, summoning up all the hate I'd felt for the Queen when I last faced her. I'd put on as much bravado as I could then, but there was no point in that now, not in front of them. "The Queen I know wouldn't toss us aside so quickly."

"Ah, you didn't know her well enough," said Mobius Trip, expression breaking into a grin. Jack grinned too, as if they were sharing some kind of private joke. That only served to agitate me - Jack was working with Mobius Trip after all, and here they were talking about _my_ treason. 

My agitation motivating me, I made to push past Mobius Trip, noticing too late that Jack still had a hand around my arm. I paused, and he seemed to realize it too as he quickly withdrew his hand and crossed his arms. Mobius Trip seemed to miss this. He was more preoccupied with me.

"Hang on," he said, "Let me get that for you." And before I could take another step, he'd jabbed a white shelled finger at the barely healing stab wound in my shoulder. I yelped and jumped back, nearly knocking Jack over in my expectation of that now familiar pain, but instead all I felt was a strange pinching sensation on my shoulder. Jack grabbed onto me to steady himself, but I didn't notice him at all as I was looking at the wound past my torn uniform.

It was...not exactly a healing job. My dark carapace had pinched together over the wound, hiding the wound that Jack had caused and so liked to abuse. I looked to Mobius Trip, my jaw hanging open from the surprise. Jack peered at it, and strangely I did not care that his razor teeth was so close to my injury.

"Huh, not bad, you've learned a few tricks, eh, Trip?" said Jack, and then he straightened himself and walked off to the door.

"Just a little favor," said the Prospitian, "I can't quite reverse wounds perfectly yet, so that'll have to do. Now, since Jack trusts you so much and I guess you do have a point about the Queen, come along. I expect Hadron's busted herself out already - "

"Wait," I said, managing to shake off the surprise only a little, "Why - how - ?"

His gaze flicked to something behind me, on the floor. I glanced back, and spotted the dried FUCK OFF on the floor. "If Jack can get that much blood out of you with only a finger, I'm sure our enemies will find more creative ways to take advantage of a visibly open wound. Really though, a stab to the shoulder..."

"Enemies?" Did he mean for us to fight our way through the entire prison? Mobius Trip probably could flatten every Guard and Brute on the way out, but Jack surely had no knives right now and I was personally useless without a weapon in hand.

"You'll have plenty of those now that you're with us," said Mobius Trip. He opened his mouth to add something, but Jack had returned.

"Coast's clear," he said, expression making it obvious he'd turned back to see why we hadn't followed him yet. He peered at my shoulder, scowled, then turned around and stomped off. Mobius Trip chuckled, then strode after him, long legs allowing him to easily catch up. There was no point for me to linger around. I hurried after them, sparing only a glance back at our cell...it must have been only a few days at most, but it felt as if I had spent a lifetime in there.

Despite the darkness, something in the the distant corner of the cell glinted and caught my eye just as I was turning to leave. I blinked and strode back into the cell...it was the ridiculously complicated gag, forgotten after Jack had destroyed it then kicked it into the corner. I reached over and picked it up, unsure why I had the sudden urge to do so. It wasn't like I had anywhere to keep it, and it was only useless junk at this point.

As I turned it over though, the gag jumped out of my hands, and in the next moment I was holding a flat green and white card. The only indication that it had ever been the gag was a crude drawing of it etched across the card's upper half. I turned it again, and watched as the card thinned into darkness. I stared at where it had been, unsure about what I had just witnessed. I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be able to do that.

I caught up to Mobius Trip and Jack Noir at the foot of the stairs at the end of the corridor, stepping over a good number of unconscious guards - three of which were suspiciously naked - along the way. Much as I had suspected, Jack had swapped out of what remained of his Archagent uniform and was wearing one of the guards' uniforms. Mobius Trip had likewise put on something cleaner, looking very strange wearing black over his white carapace. I could just make out slight bulges under his sleeves where he seemed to have hidden his chains.

"Here," said Jack, thrusting a bundle of clothes into my hands. Atop it lay a gleaming black key and its holster, no doubt also nicked off a guard. I accepted the bundle of course, thinking of making my way into an empty cell to change, only to realize that Jack was staring at me expectantly.

"Quickly now," said Mobius Trip. He was peering up the spiraling staircase, as if trying to glimpse the upper landing despite the awkward angle. "No time for modesty, Guard. I should think you and Jack are past that point anyway."

I flushed. To my surprise, Jack turned away. He did not get angry or impatient. "Better hurry," he said, peering up the stairwell too. Were they really waiting for me? A sense of urgency rising, I tore off the bloody rags still on me and pulled on the clean uniform. 

"Where do we go once we get out?" I asked. I looked up the stairwell as well, wondering what was fascinating them so. It was too dark to see anything. 

...Too dark? That was no problem for me, not anymore, not with my Sight. I looked directly up, to where the top of the spiraling staircase would be. In the darkness, two silhouettes took shape, one taller than the other. Both pawns.

"Told you he'd use it," muttered Jack to Mobius Trip, who made a noncommittal noise.

"What do you see?" he said after a moment.

"There's two pawns at the top of the stairs."

"That's all?" said Mobius Trip. I frowned, and tore my gaze away from the two silhouettes, expecting to see prisoners in their cells...but something was blocking my vision. The two of them were all I could see, and I found my gaze constantly returning to them, as if something were drawing my vision...

"I can't see anything else," I said, and when my vision returned to normal and I looked back at him, Mobius Trip was nodding. 

"Just two pawns, we can take 'em." And Jack, without waiting for either of us, shot up the stairs. Mobius Trip groaned and rushed up after him, chains uncoiling out of his sleeves and flying after Jack. I hurried after them, climbing the stairs two steps at a time. I had just turned the curve in the staircase when a yell rang out from above. Mobius Trip, just ahead of me, flattened himself against the wall just as a blur of black came crashing down from the steps above, past him, and then right into me. A light blossomed overhead just as I slammed against the curved wall immediately behind me.

"What - ?"

It was Jack, swearing angrily as he untangled himself from me and scrambled to his feet. He roared obscenities and rushed back up the stairs, only for Mobius Trip to catch him by the scruff of his stolen uniform.

"Easy," said the Prospitian, sounding like he was speaking to a regular, lesser pawn. "They're friends."

"Friends?" Jack calmed immediately, dangling from Mobius Trip's grip. He looked up the steps, into the light at the top of the stairs, and shouted, "You!"

Steadying myself, I climbed the few steps up and pressed against the wall where Mobius Trip had done the same just moments ago. It was safer to peer past him from here than from behind either of them. Standing at the top of the stairs were the same two silhouettes I had seen, but this time they were framed by light rather than void.

"Ah, you didn't aim low enough," said the taller of the two. She had, like us, stolen a uniform from a guard somewhere, black cloth hanging off her Queen-like figure. Her gaze shifted suddenly, from Jack to me, and then Hadron Kaleido pointed the black rapier she wielded in one hand at me. "Why's he with you?"

"Jack's fond of him," said Mobius Trip, lowering the former Archagent in question. Jack choked as he landed on his feet, and it was probably a good thing he couldn't find any knives among the unconscious guards. It was probably a good thing I didn't have one on me either.

"How do we know we can trust him?" said Hadron Kaleido.

Anger seized me. I squeezed past Mobius Trip and started up the steps. I pointed up at Hadron Kaleido, who had the decency to at least look surprised. "Oh, so I have to prove this again? _It's not enough that your boyfriend decided it was all right to bring me along?_ "

Immediately I felt a hand close around my wrist still at my side.

"You'd be asking that 'bout her yourself if you swapped places," said Jack from my side. He was unfortunately right, but I glared at him anyway.

"So I _shouldn't_ be angry?" I hissed, though I did withdraw my hand.

Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Mobius Trip took my momentary distraction as an opportunity to step around me and impatiently move up the stairs. He embraced a surprised Hadron Kaleido at the top, who quietly welcomed the contact, wrapping her arms around him in turn. Mobius Trip shifted, burying his face in her shoulder.

I felt my anger melt at the heartwarming sight. Every pawn involved in the concert raid had been briefed on the rebel leaders. They were friends and most likely lovers too, but before that they had been enemies, each loyal to their own crown. Pawns on the Battlefield spoke about the two platoons, one light and one dark, that had been caught in an explosion. The checkered ground had collapsed beneath their feet, and the two groups had been swallowed up. It was many, many months before two survivors emerged.

Whatever had happened underground, in that wreckage, it had changed them both and bonded them in a way no one else could understand. They had been curiosities at first, and then they'd taken up their instruments and taken on the system, using their fame to gather followers quickly. They were no longer whatever they had been before the explosion, but now Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido.

"What, I don't get a hug?" said another familiar voice from behind the pair. My gaze snapped to the white figure leaning on the wall a short distance from the top step, though it was a little difficult to see them -

With a jolt I realized why. The light that had appeared was emanating from them, golden and bright, drowning out the harsh darkness around them and behind us...and then they moved and I made out a smile on their white-shelled face, and I knew who it was.

"You!" I shouted, my anger returning, but this time it was the anger of being played for a fool, of being _used _.__

"Ah," said the Prospitian Reporter.

I leapt up the stairs, as many steps as I could go at a time, and lunged for her. She had tricked me, had asked me those questions to lead me into nearly spilling secrets. Then she'd gone and spun up her own version of the story with guesses at those secrets anyway.

" _You're_ the reason I'm here!" I yelled. She jumped back, the light moving with her. "Jack _stabbed_ me, you know!"

There was no fear in her eyes even in the face of my rage, and her smile was gone. "Is that really a problem? You look fine to me, not to mention you look like you're getting along with Jack Noir just fine."

"Reporter, stop antagonizing him." Hadron Kaleido's voice cut through the haze of anger. "Like it or not, he knows the prison compound better than any of us here."

I turned on her instead. I felt as if I were going to burst. "Oh, so now you need me? Untrustworthy until useful, is it? Is that what all those pawns were? Tools, like me, fodder for your rebel army until they were captured with you. I don't see either of you going to rescue them though - !"

"Woah there," said Jack, "What the fuck - "

"And you, acting all buddy buddy with me after stabbing me!" I whirled around to snarl at him, barely registering the look of surprise he gave me. "I stood up for you, and freed you, and just like that you think it's okay? You think what happened before doesn't matter anymore? You're _wrong!_ "

"The fuck's gotten into you?" he hissed, and I saw him reaching out to me.

He was holding his knife, he was going to stab me again. Instead of panic I only felt my anger bubble over, I was going to explode if I didn't let it loose.

" _Gonna stab me again?_ " I shouted. I had to stop him. I had to defend myself this time. The key he had given me was in my hand. I raised it, pointing it at Jack Noir, but he did not even react to a gun pointed at him. "Betray me and throw me back in our cell, like the ungrateful bastard you are!" 

"Okay, that's enough!"

I only vaguely heard Mobius Trip before I slammed against a wall. My gun clattered to the ground somewhere. The light around us went out, plunging the area back into total darkness. A purple glow filled my vision. Someone was holding me down. I fought their grip, thrashing about. People were shouting, all around me, I couldn't See at all, I was blinded and there was an awful, horrible scream and

I blinked.

I was on the floor and someone was sitting on me. The area was lit once again, and when I raised my head I could only stare at the gruesome sight before me.

It was a Brute, laying in a bloody heap on the purple floor, and the worst of it was that his head was laying several feet from his body.

"He was one of mine!" Jack was shouting. He looked upset, and immediately I felt a strange need to go over and comfort him.

"And he was going to manipulate us into destroying each other." Hadron Kaleido stood opposite from Jack, expression as calm as ever. Her rapier was raised, and even from here I could see it was coated in the Brute's blood.

***

The moon was just visible out the window. I could just make out one of the three obsidian towers where the Dreamers slumbered away.

"Okay," said Mobius Trip, and I turned back to him. His expression was grim, and he looked worn out, his posture drooping quite a bit. "It took me a lot of effort to make this bubble, so let's not waste it. Just my luck that Time is a lot more cooperative this close to the Void, huh?"

I gave him a blank look. "I don't get it."

"You don't have to," said Hadron Kaleido, expression just as grim. She was cleaning off her rapier with the Brute's uniform. "Just know that time has stopped save for this bubble around the five of us. It will not flow again until Mobius asks it too."

I looked between them, then at Jack, who was sulking behind Mobius Trip, sitting as far away from the Brute's corpse as he could. My gaze traveled to the Reporter. She was standing near the stairs, light emanating from her as she looked down the dark steps.

"The brute?" I spoke quietly, but I knew all of them heard me.

"It is as I told Jack, he would have caused us to destroy each other," said Hadron Kaleido. She kept her gaze on her rapier, apparently trying to find some new stain on it to clean.

"But how? Brutes...can't do that. Not normally." I was, quite pointedly, trying to not bring up what I had almost done.

"The Black Queen," said Mobius Trip, and his expression twisted to hate. "She must have given him the powers of a dreamer."

"How - "

"She's a fake." Here the Reporter finally spoke up, still staring down the stairs. "She's not the Black Queen of this universe. I just remembered...she was there when MT opened the door. She's from another Incipisphere... _our_ Incipisphere..."

I looked between them all, eventually my gaze settled on Jack alone. What could he be thinking right now...? The Reporter's words would normally have made no sense, but between my new abilities and all my dreams and the way Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido acted as if codes never meant anything to them, I finally understood.

"We were Dreamers," I said slowly. No one saw fit to refute this, none of them were telling me I was crazy to think so. Instead, they were all showing signs of agreement. Hadron Kaleido had closed her eyes and sighed. Mobius Trip was nodding. The Reporter had buried her face in her hands. Jack...he was staring at me, but made no move to argue. I continued, "We were Dreamers...and she was our Black Queen...and she followed us here?""

"That's right." 

To my surprise, it was neither Mobius nor Hadron that said this. It was Jack, emanating relief as he stepped toward me.

"Jack...?" I wasn't sure what I was seeing.

"The Black Queen followed you guys across sessions," he said, and he smiled. It was small and didn't suit his face. "And I followed her."

And all at once the memories, full and complete, came to me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: the scene where Mobius Trip first uses his chains was the one reason I started writing this entire fic. It just wouldn't leave my head till I gave it some context and then the entire thing just blew up.
> 
> The next chapter is going to be a little...different. Please look forward to it :33


	8. The Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> INCOHERENT SOBBING OVER FORMATTING

DG: Play shitty game.

MT: ok so  
MT: im not the only one who got this game in the mail  
MT: right  
HK: No.  
HK: You are not. I have a copy too.  
PR: i got one too! :D  
DG: Same  
MT: its not from any of u guys then?  
HK: It does not seem that way.  
HK: That begs the question of who sent it to all of us then.  
MT: man does that really matter  
MT: it looks pretty fun let's just play it  
MT: pr u insalled it too right  
PR: i might have... >:3  
MT: server or client  
HK: I have a bad feeling about this.  
PR: server~  
MT: ok sweet  
MT: I've got the client already just connect to mine  
DG: hk wanna join them?  
DG: To keep an eye on them  
HK: Oh please. You just want to play it too :/  
DG: Guilty as charged ;)  
HK: Well I see no way this can end badly /s  
HK: But go ahead and install the server. I'll join MT in the game.  
HK: No offense but I think I'll be better at reining him in.  
DG: less work for me  
MT: oh shit guys  
DG: why did he just go offline

***

DG: okay for the record HK  
DG: judging by the posters all over your bedroom wall  
DG: your taste in anime is fucking awful  
DG: mew mew kissy cutie 2 is garbage  
DG: did you just block me

***

DG: WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS SHITTY GAME  
PR: meteors? :3  
HK: Meteors.

***

HK: I assume MT is still having internet problems  
PR: Nah he's just sulking abt his guitars gettin rekt by an imp  
PR: it's kinda funny X)  
  
DG: which means he's doing fuck all toward progression  
DG: pr do us a favor and pick up whatever he's sulking on  
DG: then drop him to wake him the fuck up  
PR: DG don't be mean!  
PR: :(  
DG: hey we still don't know what this game's all about  
DG: and since only mt and hk are actually playing, only they can really progress and stuff  
DG: I wanna get all the info out of them before I play this myself  
HK: Because it'd be less work for you?  
DG: absolutley.  
DG: it's for when PR and me play.  
PR: hey, MT is back on!

***

DG: so 2 kingdoms  
DG: and you got the evil one  
HK: That's oversimplifying it a little, don't you think?  
HK: Dark doesn't have to mean evil, and Destruction is as much a necessary force in the Universe as Creation.  
DG: I'm going to Stop You Right There because you are doing that Capitalization Thing again  
DG: But even if dark doesnt have to mean evil  
DG: these guys scream evil  
DG: plus theyre attacking u aintt hey  
DG: like that one right outside your window right now  
HK: Drop a table on it or something. I'm trying to decipher this disgustingly obtuse text my sprite uncovered.  
HK: ...and that was an expensive drum.  
HK: You are dead to me.  
DG: I'll make you a new one

***

PR: DG  
DG: PR  
PR: \:  
PR: I think we need to get into the game too  
PR: the meteors...  
DG: I'll play it eventually, I just want to know as much as we can first  
PR: DG  
DG: PR  
PR: stop that!  
PR: just look outside your window ;_;

***

DG: I need to get into the game  
DG: now  
HK: What changed your mind?  
DG: My entire neighborhood is fucking gone  
DG: fucking meteors  
HK: You're upset.  
HK: And I want to help you, but I'm sort of in a tough place right now.  
DG: the fuck? You aren't on my screen anymore  
HK: About that,  
DG: HK...?  
DG: hey??  
DG: what the fuck  


***

DG: HK's gone MT I need your fuckin help  
MT: woah hey  
MT: what do you mean HK's gone?  
DG: gonee  
DG: like  
DG: she wasnt on my screen anymore and we were talking and then she was justgone  
DG: shes not responding to anything  
MT: maybe she's in the middle of a fight?  
DG: well that's why we alchemized a fucking hands free computer for her aint it  
DG: if she's not responding then she's not okay  
DG: and I need you to get me into the game  
MT: aww that's sweet  
MT: gonna jump into the game to rescue her?  
DG: hahahaha fuck you  
DG: meteors just razed my neighbourhood is all  
MT: Oh  
MT: I'll go install the server

***

DG: GIVEN THAT THERE IS A METEOR ABOUT TO KILL ME, I WOULDVE HOPED THAT I WOULDNT HAVE TO RUN ALL OVER MY FUCKING HOUSE JUST TO GET SHIT DONE IN THE LIMITED TIME I HAVE  
MT: lol sorry

***

DG: any luck?  
MT: no dice  
MT: the disk doesnt work for me anymore  
MT: not even on a different computer  
PR: So...HK HAS to be my server  
MT: there has to be some clue to her location  
MT: any luck DG?  
DG: sprite said she's probably on derse  
MT: the very kingdom of darkness that's at war with my kingdom of light?  
MT: why haven't you gone to rescue her yet if you know where she is?  
DG: shut up and lemme finish alchemizing this thing first  
MT: is that seriously another computer?  
MT: what do you need THREE computers for  
DG: first of all, the BALANCED JUSTICETOP is my personal computer now and has the game server on it  
DG: secondly, do you fucking see any disk drives on the HANDS FREE HELMSET  
DG: didn't think so  
DG: finally, how do you think HK's gonna be PR's server without a fucking computer  
DG: that's where HK's new laptop comes in  
MT: awfully thoughtful of you  
MT: so how're you getting to derse?  
DG: no idea  
MT: wait there's something behind you  
DG: figured I could hitch a ride somewhere  
DG: what  
DG: who the fuck are  
MT: what...my screen just went black -  
PR: the heck did I just miss?

***

DG: I'm fine  
MT: oh god there you are  
MT: what happened? You aren't in your house anymore  
MT: and you should probably talk to PR  
DG: no shit  
DG: I'm on Derse  
MT: you're with HK?  
DG: yeah, she's fine too  
DG: she's working on getting PR into the game  
DG: look uh  
DG: we probably can't talk for a while after this  
MT: what why  
DG: I made a deal with the Dersites  
DG: it was the only way I could get close to HK  
DG: I work for them now  
DG: HK too.  
MT: wait is this part of the game?  
DG: I guess it is  
DG: look...  
DG: I think we can meet up if you and PR signed on with Prospit  
MT: wait. are you saying we all fight in this war just because you want to?  
DG: well...yes  
DG: if it's the only way me and HK are getting off this planet safely, then yes  
MT: and the gates? the quests? everything our sprites told us about? you're gonna just up and pretend they don't exist anymore after obsessisng over all that info earlier?  
DG: goddammit MT  
DG: look, HK's all for playing politics and I think we may as fucking well roll with this war thing given the situation the two of us are in right now  
DG: we can work on quests during downtime, yeah? I promise I'll keep building your house  
DG: and tell PR I'm sorry  
MT: tell her yourself.  
DG: did you really just block me

***

DG: PR I'm sorry  
DG: we probably can't talk for a while after this  
PR: what did the Dersites offer you, DG?  
DG: you mean aside from me and HK getting to walk free?  
DG: for fuck's sake  
DG: did you sERIOUSLY just block me?

***

HK: Congratulations on the promotion.  
DG: I dunno, there's tons of Agents. It's not that special  
DG: How's it going on the Battlefield?  
HK: I ran into MT again.  
DG: ...how'd that go  
HK: I killed five copies of him but he managed to lasso me.  
HK: He's still...bitter.  
DG: our explanations still not getting through to him huh  
HK: No, and I dare say they won't for a long while.  
HK: We'll have to keep at it and simply play the game in our off time to humor him.  
DG: humor him?  
DG: HK are you implying that you enjoy this war and fighting more than you enjoy playing what MT claims is the true path of the game  
HK: Well  
HK: Yes, I suppose I am. There's certainly nothing to indicate this war can't be the 'true path'.  
HK: Don't you dare say a thing though, you are much worse. You haven't stepped foot on your planet in weeks.  
DG: okay so I've been a little caught up in Derse politics  
HK: The irony of you being better off in the backline and myself on the frontline shall never cease to amaze me.  
HK: Canoodling with Jack Noir is not exactly what I would call Derse politics.  
DG: First of all, I cannot fucking believe you just used the word canoodling  
DG: Secondly, I am so not canoodling with Jack Noir  
DG: Don't be gross, HK.  
DG: It's a purely professional relationship  
DG: Though you gotta admit he IS pretty cool.  
HK: Well I don't trust him.  
HK: He's obviously looking to betray the Queen as soon as he gets the chance.  
DG: Well OF COURSE he is  
DG: Think of it in game terms, HK!  
DG: He's obviously a sidequest to take out the Queen!  
HK: And I take it you intend to see that sidequest through.  
DG: Thank you for your understanding  
DG: Anyway I better get going  
HK: Celebratory lunch with your favorite Archagent?  
DG: Yep  
HK: Well, have fun. Promise me at least though that you'll work on your planet quest a little more.  
DG: yeah yeah I promise I will

***

ARCHAGENT: so seer  
ARCHAGENT: ive got a small proposition ta make  
SEER: And what would that be  
ARCHAGENT: see the queens been reading that book you filched off the mage for us  
ARCHAGENT: an she says theres somethin funny in there about the entire incipisphere  
ARCHAGENT: now see  
ARCHAGENT: ive gotten pretty fond of ya  
SEER: Well Jack -  
ARCHAGENT: shut up i aint done  
ARCHAGENT: as i was sayin  
ARCHAGENT: ive gotten pretty fond of ya  
ARCHAGENT: and see the queen...she thinks we should kill you and the mage  
ARCHAGENT: sit the fuck down  
ARCHAGENT: i convinced her we could do somethin different  
ARCHAGENT: so the book says that when derse wins the kings gonna start the reckoning  
ARCHAGENT: and you guys are gonna have to kill him  
ARCHAGENT: and when ya do that ya get ta do the ugh ultimate creation ugh  
ARCHAGENT: which involves ugh frogs  
ARCHAGENT: now see when that happens  
ARCHAGENT: you guys get to move into yer creation  
ARCHAGENT: ya could be a god  
ARCHAGENT: but theres the question aint it  
ARCHAGENT: what happens to the incipisphere  
ARCHAGENT: what happens to derse?  
ARCHAGENT: fucking erased is what  
ARCHAGENT: now we could exile ourselves and live on in some other weird planet  
ARCHAGENT: but that doesnt stop derse from being erased  
SEER: So what can we do? We can't prevent something like that can we?  
ARCHAGENT: yer right, we cant  
ARCHAGENT: but heres the thing  
ARCHAGENT: yer creations going to have its own incipisphere  
ARCHAGENT: new skaia new prospit new derse  
ARCHAGENT: we get in fore their dreamers wake up and we take over real smooth and quiet  
ARCHAGENT: betcha the queenll even make ya an actual agent  
ARCHAGENT: hows that seer  
ARCHAGENT: wanna be a real dersite?  
SEER: I...  
SEER: I'd like that...  
SEER: But I'd have to give up my powers, won't I?  
ARCHAGENT: i bet the queen can do somethin about that  
ARCHAGENT: that ring o hers makes her all powerful yknow  
ARCHAGENT: so whaddaya say?  
SEER: I dunno, Jack...  
ARCHAGENT: heres how i see it  
ARCHAGENT: seer  
ARCHAGENT: the other dreamers dont like you  
ARCHAGENT: no dont  
ARCHAGENT: i can tell and theres no fucking point in tryna argue  
ARCHAGENT: you know that though right?  
ARCHAGENT: you KNOW they dont like you  
ARCHAGENT: the bard and the maid threw in with prospit outta spite didnt they  
ARCHAGENT: and the mage aint exactly the friendliest to anyone  
ARCHAGENT: not to me and not even to you  
ARCHAGENT: you ever think they might just be puttin up with ya just cause theyre stuck with you  
ARCHAGENT: thought so  
ARCHAGENT: so what choice do ya got seer?  
ARCHAGENT: join em in the ultimate creation till they ventually tryta get rid of you  
ARCHAGENT: or join the queen an me  
ARCHAGENT: you wanna be a real dersite seer?  
SEER: Jack...  
SEER: You're right...they never listen to me and theyre always blowing my mistakes up  
SEER: they block me at the slightest thing and treat it as a throwaway joke after they unblock me  
SEER: but...when they start ignoring me...  
SEER: I don't know why they even still pretend they think of me as their friend  
SEER: okay, I've made up my mind  
SEER: I'll help you and the Queen get into the new Incipisphere.

***

MT: okay we need to talk  
DG: what  
DG: im busy  
MT: yes, I can see that  
MT: you've been working on progressing and you're busy alchemizing the shit out of some new gear for yourself  
MT: for the record that is a sick rifle you just made  
DG: thanks  
MT: but anyway you have some explaining to do  
MT: what's with suddenly focusing all ur time on ur planet  
MT: you were like all obsessed with derse and the war and now ur like obsessed with ur quest instead  
MT: what gives?  
DG: I don't get it. what's the problem here  
DG: ain't this what you and pr wanted?  
DG: didnt you two want me to spend more time on the game's 'main quest'. thats what I'm doing now. I dont see a fucking problem here  
MT: no no it's not a...problem  
MT: it's just that it's kind of odd that you completely switched gears  
MT: did something happen dg?  
MT: on derse?  
DG: no  
MT: so you just up and decided you didn't wanna play on Derse anymore?  
DG: yeah sure  
MT: I think you are lying  
MT: look, DG,  
MT: I swear, we're concerned about you  
MT: Is someone causing trouble for you back on Derse? You know PR andn I are gonna fly over there and murder them  
DG: The fuck do you care so much about me now suddenly?  
MT: …  
MT: DG, we've been friends for years.  
MT: if somehow, over all that time it has not gotten into your thick skull yet, I'm goingto spell it out for you right now  
MT: WE FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOU  
MT: you're always acting like you're so damn alone in this world  
MT: we get it, you've got some messed up stuff in your past and that makes you not want to get close to anyone and you hate socializing and for some reason that makes you a god at carapacian politics, but dangit DG, you ARENT alone  
MT: we're here.  
MT: and heck it all to heck, if someone did wrong by you on Derse, we're going to mess them up for you  
MT: …  
MT: DG…?  
MT: uh  
DG: ahfjskksnnjdk  
DG: ajaiworpshdiixdkdmkll.,,??!'.,,,,,,,,,,,,,  
MT: OH  
DG: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

***

DG: ok so now that I am no longer under threat of death by brute  
DG: thanks for dropping my bed on it by the way, not like I needed that anymore...  
MT: Why was it even trying to kill you?  
MT: That wasn't a normal monster guy, that was a derse guy  
MT: the heck did you do, DG?  
DG: I really don't wanna talk about this  
MT: considering I just saved your life I think I deserve an explanation  
DG: GOD  
DG: FINE  
DG: I pissed off Jack Noir  
MT: what  
MT: how  
DG: who cares how all you need to know is that I pissed him off  
MT: I can't really help you if I dont know why he's mad at you  
DG: just drop it man  
MT: I mean unless it's something really embrrassing like rejecting him romantically or something I dont see why you cant tell me  
MT: ...  
MT: oh

***

PR: I've been speaking with the White Queen and apparently she wants to host a celebration in honor all four of us  
PR: She'll be sending the official word to the Black Queen later today, but I'm telling you guys ahead of time cause I love y'all so much ;P  
PR: The celebration's to be held on Skaia on neutral ground so like dress up nicely guys.  
DG: maybe she can convince Jack Noir to stop trying to kill me while she's at it  
PR: Neither the Queen nor I can work miracles, DG  
PR: but you'll be happy to know that as a Light player, I can tell you that carapace coding makes them unable to attack on agreed neutral ground  
PR: and luckily the venue's gonna be declared as one  
DG: oh yeah that makes me feel better a ton  
DG: what's stopping him from shanking me the moment I walk out of the party  
PR: whoever coded the carapaces went all out, they've got something covering that too  
PR: as guests of honor to both kingdoms we can't be touched whatsoever for up to an hour after the event  
PR: plenty of time to get back to your planet safely  
PR: thorough, huh?  
DG: must suck ass for them tho  
HK: Why, is that pity you're feeling, DG?  
DG: you mean pity for the poor fucks whove got everything they do dictated by some inscrutable code that they themselves only find out when they accidentally try to go against it?  
DG: might have crossed my mind, sure  
MT: well there's nothing we can do about any of that

***

DG: of course I'm wearing black to it  
HK: I'm not surprised  
HK: But it might be better to wear some brighter colors to blend in less with the Dersites  
DG: honestly HK, that's the frigging plan  
DG: if jack can't find me then I'll be safe  
PR: I'm surprised you're this scared of him tho O:  
MT: guys?  
DG: he's got all the power to make my life hell while we're here, of course I'm scared  
HK: In any case, PR did you find the right socks to go with your dress?  
PR: oh man I did!  
PR: what do you think? cutesocks.jpg  
HK: very cute  
DG: can't wait to see you in them  
MT: guuuuys  
HK: It might be fun to wear a different color from my usual  
DG: like what? Pink?  
HK: actually, I am considering it  
HK: if only for the look on your face.  
PR: go for it HK!  
MT: guys!!!  
MT: I found the last frog  


***

ARCHAGENT: okay seer  
ARCHAGENT: i told ya to get creative and come up with a reason for me tryna kill ya  
ARCHAGENT: but what the actual fuck is this rumor goin' 'round 'bout you rejectin' me  
SEER: I swear to god it was MT who came up with it and I couldnt think of anything better to tell him so I  
ARCHAGENT: cause y'realize if anyone's doing the heart breaking, itd haveta be me  
SEER: ...  
SEER: um  
SEER: I do like guys but I'm not interested in you that way, Jack -  
ARCHAGENT: the fuck? You sayin' im not -  
SEER: oh god, no, fuck me  
SEER: we are not having this conversation

***

PR: small change of plans  
PR: the Queen thinks there might be some foul play today  
PR: we're gonna meet up earlier than planned in the space between Prospit and the Veil  
DG: WHAT  
MT: sounds good to me  
MT: HK can look over my suit~  
HK: Meeting earlier can only make this go quicker. I've no objections to this  
HK: I should also be done with frog breeding by then  
DG: BUT  
HK: but what, DG?  
DG: forget I said anything

***

  
HK: The Prospitians mourn.  
HK: We must carry on.  
HK: He will be fine without a dreamself.  
HK: One more thing.  
HK: Should any of the Prospitians greet you.  
HK: You must respond accordingly with.  
HK: The Bard is dead.  
HK: All is lost to Time.

***

ARCHAGENT: nice suit, seer  
SEER: what the actual FUCK, JACK!?  
ARCHAGENT: let go of me.  
SEER: no! fuck you! you said no one'd get hurt!  
SEER: what the fuck was THAT!?  
SEER: why the fuck is MT's dreamself dead!?  
SEER: what if that was the real him!?  
ARCHAGENT: if ya don't let go o' me right now -  
SEER: what, you're gonna kill me too?  
SEER: you're gonna stab me and leave me for dead right here in the middle o' freaking skaia?  
SEER: I'm not afraid of you.  
ARCHAGENT: shut up and listen for a sec  
ARCHAGENT: I thought ya grilled your sprite on everythin' there was to learn 'bout being a dreamer  
ARCHAGENT: so, ya should fuckin know it ain't the end  
ARCHAGENT: fact is, it's only the beginning  
MAID: DG! It's a disaster...!  
MAID: ...hello Mr. Noir  
ARCHAGENT: so this is the maid of light  
ARCHAGENT: niceta meet ya an' all that jazz  
SEER: PR, what's the disaster?  
MAID: it's MT's body! It's gone! Someone stole it...!  
SEER: ...who the hell steals a corpse?  
ARCHAGENT: hey, dont look at me now  
ARCHAGENT: I think it's fucked up too  
SEER: Look, we can still find it  
SEER: we just have to split up and fly around to make it easier  
SEER: PR, go get HK.  
ARCHAGENT: I'll talk to ya later, Seer.  
ARCHAGENT: But you should know...the mage is next.  
ARCHAGENT: and I'm saving you for last.

***

SEER: PR, I need your help.  
SEER: Introduce me to the White Queen. Now.

***

QUEEN: I must say, this is unexpected, and surely unprecedented, but I am glad you reached out to me, Seer.  
SEER: um...thank you, your majesty...  
QUEEN: I understand you have something important you wish to confess.  
SEER: I...I made a deal with Jack Noir.  
SEER: I was...weak and angry with my friends, and he was there for me, so I just...it seemed like a good idea.  
QUEEN: I see. And now that someone has been hurt, you regret being so hasty.  
SEER: I, yeah, that's it, I guess.  
QUEEN: And what was your deal with him, Seer?  
SEER: I...I'm supposed to help him and the Black Queen follow us into the universe we're going to create.  
QUEEN: And in exchange?  
SEER: They'd...um, give me all the power I wanted...and I'd get to be a Dersite...  
SEER: god, it sounds so stupid now when I say it aloud.  
QUEEN: Tis easy to be blinded by our own desires, especially for one as strong as yours. I can't say I fully understand the desire to belong somewhere, but I am sure your friends will work to understand you if you were to tell them how you felt.  
SEER: ...I hate that you're right, but what should I do about Jack and the Black Queen?  
QUEEN: It is something I will have to discuss with my court. Their plan defies everything we are, it is not something I am well equipped to handle...  
QUEEN: Ah, there appears to be quite a commotion over there.  
GRANDLEGATE: My Queen! It's horrible! The Mage...  
SEER: oh no  
GRANDLEGATE: The Mage is dead.  
QUEEN: All is lost in Space. What happened?  
GRANDLEGATE: Sniped from beyond the neutral ground. The bullet was black, my Queen.  
QUEEN: So they found a way around that particular safeguard after all.  
SEER: Fuck, fuck, I didn't think it'd be this soon...  
QUEEN: This party is over. Have every pawn evacuated. Seer, this is part of their plan, then?  
SEER: I, yes, but Jack said -  
QUEEN: I would not put much faith in Jack Noir's words right now, if I were you, Seer. Grandlegate, take him with you, I'm sure he would like this chance to make up for his errors.  
GRANDLEGATE: Yes, my Queen. I'll locate the Maid as well and get her to safety.  
QUEEN: Thank you, my Grandlegate.  
SEER: Wait, what about you? What are you doing - wh-where'd that sword come from?  
QUEEN: I am going to have a little chat with my sister.

***

MAID: DG...is it true? The Prospitians are saying that you...  
SEER: It's true! Okay, I promise I'll tell you everything, but...right now we have to go.  
GRANDLEGATE: No, you will stay here with me. If you leave, you become open to attack...  
SEER: okay no offense but you, you aren't gonna be able to protect us. You run on back to your queen. PR and I can take care of ourselves.  
GRANDLEGATE: You mean like how the Bard and the Mage were able to protect themselves? The Dersites obviously aren't playing by the rules anymore, but here on neutral ground, you should be quite safe - hrk -  
MAID: oh...oh my god!  
SEER: sh-shit, what the fuck, PR, run!  
MAID: eek!  
DIGNITARY: Hold them both up for me, Brute.  
SEER: You fucking let go of her right now or I'll -  
DIGNITARY: You ain't in position to make demands right now, Seer.  
SEER: ...  
SEER: Look, just, let her go...kill me, but please, not PR -  
DIGNITARY: You're a much bigger moron than Jack said you were. Kill her, Brute.  
SEER: No, no, PR!  
MAID: It's...It's okay, DG, we'll all be -  
DIGNITARY: Hmph, that's messier than necessary.  
SEER: I - I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna fucking...I'm gonna fucking kill you, both of you, and Jack -  
ARCHAGENT: Good god, do you ever shut up, Seer?  
ARCHAGENT: That the Maid? Sheesh, Brute, I can't even recognize her.  
SEER: You...how...the neutral ground...you promised...  
ARCHAGENT: I promised ya that you'd be last, and here we are.  
ARCHAGENT: And neutral ground only counts if both sides agree ta it, yea? Well we don't agree to it anymore.  
ARCHAGENT: Shame on ya, Seer, ya would've caught that a few weeks ago.  
DIGNITARY: Jack, the Queen's almost done.  
SEER: What...what's the Queen -  
ARCHAGENT: None o' yer damn business, Seer.  
ARCHAGENT: But I'll tell ya what IS yer business...  
ARCHAGENT: It's this knife ta yer face!  
ARCHAGENT: ...fuck, that worked better in my head. Whatever, ya should be dead in a few -

***

MT: Oh boy, where to even start.  
MT: Maybe with the state of our game right now:  
MT: The White Queen and her Grandlegate are dead, the White King is in mourning and unable to command his armies, Prospit is in chaos, Derse is celebrating, all is lost to Time, all is lost in Space, all Light is lost, etc, etc, et fucking cetera  
MT: What else? Oh, that's right  
MT: Turns out one of my best friends was going to betray his friends, because I guess the power of friendship was never good enough for him  
DG: Look, I know you're mad at me  
MT: oh, very very cross.  
DG: I just  
MT: You know the others don't want me to even talk to you about this?  
MT: They think I should I just leave you to wallow and sulk in self-pity and regret.  
DG: So why don't you, then? Why don't you just fucking do that  
DG: God knows I'm wallowing in regret even with you talking to me  
MT: Y'know I think that's the thing about this that gets me  
MT: DO you regret it? Do you really?  
DG: of course I fucking do  
DG: why can't you have a little faith in me?  
MT: I don't know, maybe because you did betray us  
DG: good god, that's not what I meant  
DG: you've NEVER had faith in me. NEVER. every time I fuck up or cross some invisible line I've never been able to identify you three just block me or yell at me or treat me like I made the greatest mistake of my life  
MT: ...  
MT: heck it all, DG, I'm sorry, I never realized  
MT: those were supposed to be jokes, we were supposed to be having fun, I thought you were having fun  
DG: it was funny at first but  
MT: We went too far?  
DG: you went too far.  
MT: why didnt you say anything?  
DG: how was I supposed to while I was blocked? How was I supposed to brng that shit up afterward when we're all havin a good time?  
DG: who cares about my feelings, right?  
MT: I'm sorry  
DG: and 'm sorry for listening to jack noir  
PR: If we're going to be pouring our hearts out here, then I just wanna say, DG, I don't like how you're overly nice to only me. It's creepy. And I'm sorry we treated you that way but you can be really rude to us too, especially when you're yelling, and it kind of kills our conversations or makes it hard to carry on...>_<  
DG: PR, I just watched you die, Idk if i can do this  
PR: Stop freaking pigeonholing me into this weird nice girl idea you have of me.  
DG: oh  
DG: It's just....you were the first person to be nice to me, yknow? It's hard to forget that when everyone else were jerks  
DG: even tho i was the biggest jerk in that situation  
PR: dont get me wrong, i like being nice and helping you out, but it's when you hold me to some extreme standard in your head and expect me to know everything you're thinking when you're not actually talking to me that it starts to suck  
DG: I  
DG: didn't even know I was doing that  
DG: I'm sorry, I'm going to try to catch myself if I accidentally do that  
DG: and you should call me out on it too  
MT: PR, you do need to learn to say no though  
HK: Allow me to step in and say that MT, you honestly do go a little too far in your fun sometime  
HK: It's annoying  
DG: and sometimes you don't really realize you're being a jerk  
DG: I've been there, so I know you're not doing it on purpose  
DG: but fuck if it doesn't hurt sometimes  
MT: ah, nuts. I'll tone it down, I promise  
MT: it's just a lot easier y'know? To be like that  
MT: easier not to think too hard about anything  
HK: But the thing is MT, you are better suited to thinking than you believe  
PR: I agree  
MT: shucks  
MT: I don't know what to say to that.  
MT: It's just...not me  
DG: MT, you're our fucking leader  
DG: and you do a damn good job at it without realizing  
MT: wait who died and made me boss?  
PR: you really don't notice it, but you're really good at dealing with all of us. Just as a leader should  
DG: tbh i was sorta jealous sometimes about it  
DG: youre actually good at talking to people and you know how to use us  
MT: I'm not sure 'knowing how to use' you guys is a good thing  
HK: it simply means that you know how to best utilize our strengths and weaknesses as a whole in certain situations  
HK: they're right, you know  
HK: you've very much become our leader over the time we've spent in the Incipisphere  
DG: before coming here you'd think HK would lead us  
PR: It's easy to think that, but...  
PR: HK, no offense, but you're too cold sometimes  
HK: am I now  
MT: God, yes  
MT: sometimes you just...shut us out  
MT: and it scares me when you get into this weird zone where you sound like you wanna kill everyone  
HK: Ah, like when you're annoying me  
DG: that's honestly not funny right now considering our dreamselves all just got murdered by nonhuman sociopaths  
HK: I never realized  
HK: you all know about what I've had to deal with, so I admit it's something that I automatically fall into  
HK: I really shouldn't subject you guys to it though...it's not usually really you guys' fault  
MT: we all have bad days, HK  
MT: when stuff's happening, you can tell us everything, we'll listen  
HK: ...thank you.  
HK: I will keep that in mind, difficult as it will be to break bad habits  
PR: hey...while we're talking like this  
PR: I'm sorry about being annoying. I know I can get on people's nerves a lot  
DG: nah you arent annoying  
PR: you're sort of doing the thing  
DG: sorry  
HK: I'll have to admit, PR, you're right in that you can become annoying  
DG: WOW  
HK: It's the meddling, really.  
HK: and you and DG both have a tendency to treat your own methods as absolute  
PR: that stings >_<  
PR: but I do appreciate it, I really do  
DG: hey, MT you all right?  
HK: He has been rather quiet  
MT: my sprite wanted to talk to me about what we can do next  
MT: I've got an idea.

***

ARCHAGENT: i've been expecting ya, seer.  
SEER: somehow, I'm not really surprised to find you here  
ARCHAGENT: pretty soon our king's gonna start destroying skaia  
ARCHAGENT: and you're gonna stop it of course  
SEER: the Archagent suggesting the Dreamers stop the Black King  
SEER: whodathunk  
ARCHAGENT: heh, ya know how it is.  
SEER: so, what's the plan this time? Did you station each of your little crew at the others' quest beds? Makes me feel special that you came to see me personally  
ARCHAGENT: hah! just as i expected o' the seer  
SEER: so all I gotta do is lie down on this thing, huh?  
ARCHAGENT: lie down an' get ready to die, yep  
SEER: cool, and I'm guessing you think you're gonna be the one to kill me again  
SEER: But, see, me and my friends, we've learned a lot recently  
SEER: we learned a lot about Prospit, Derse, the war, and Skaia  
SEER: we learned how to fight, how to play mind games  
SEER: we learned more than we thought we could about ourselves and each other  
SEER: and if there's one important thing we learned about ourselves  
SEER: it's that we all hate you the most.  


***

DG: Can't say I ever expected to actually shoot myself after saying I was going to so many times  
DG: and I sure didn't think I'd be doing it with a gun of pure darkness  
DG: Void best aspect  
HK: I think I just cut myself on the edge  
MT: good thing we're immortal now, eh?  
PR: so how'd everyone's encounters go?  
PR: the Brute sure didn't expect to get punched with zero luck  
HK: I daresay the Dignitary was likewise not expecting to start our encounter exercising his reflexes  
HK: I did manage to take his arm  
DG: oh, I bet that pissed him off right  
MT: my would-be killer was not actually inclined to violence at all  
MT: he actually removed all the bombs he'd prepared for my quest bed when I politely asked him to  
MT: and he was clapping and quite excited when I ascended  
MT: pretty great guy, bet he'd make a great sidekick  
PR: aww, cute~!  
PR: how bout you DG? How'd it go with jack...?  
DG: uh...he was more civil than I expected  
DG: it was only when I started trying to kill him after ascending that he pulled a knife on me  
DG: I think we actually played right into his hands on this one guys,  
DG: he WANTED us to go god tier, it was never just about killing us  
HK: ...of course. He and the Queen can't move into our future universe if we don't win.  
MT: game over if we lose, but our universe gets fucked up if we win. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  
HK: No. That is not the situation.  
PR: It's not?  
HK: It's not. You see, the Black Queen is unlikely to join her husband in battle, since she does want us to win. We can kill the Black King and claim our reward.  
HK: And when she inevitably appears to try and claim it instead, we kill the Black Queen too.  
MT: Y'know what  
MT: I like that plan a lot  
MT: but I guess that means we should get going on preparing for the big fight  
MT: we don't know when the Reckoning starts so use this time to make whatever you need, finish up loose ends on your planet  
MT: talk to your denizens and see if they'll help us somehow  
MT: I'll be rallying the Prospitians to save us some more time  
HK: I shall speak to my denizen and check in on our frog then  
PR: I'll run final checks on all the planets  
PR: HK, want me to help with finalizing the frog? Bit of luck might help  
HK: It would be appreciated  
DG: guess that leaves me with crafting up a storm  
MT: ok, I'll see you all soon. stay on your toes everyone  
MT: the game's almost over.

***

HK: DG, a word  
DG: ramble away, i'm just makin some new chains for MT  
HK: all right  
HK: I spoke with Echidna and told her about your folly  
DG: as if enough npcs didnt hate me already?  
HK: where did you say the Queen and Jack Noir learned of the nature of the Incipisphere?  
DG: uh  
DG: I stole that stupid book off you  
HK: did you read the book at all?  
DG: skimmed the first few chapters  
HK: I see  
HK: Well, none of that stuff about the Incipisphere being erased is in that book.  
DG: what  
HK: It is not common knowledge  
HK: in fact it is not something they should know at all  
HK: the nobles of both kingdoms are aware of Derse's inevitable victory, but, even to them, the Incipisphere will always be here, a home they cannot possibly lose  
DG: then how the fuck did they learn about that shit  
HK: it's quite the mystery  
DG: fuck this, I want answers  
HK: what? Where do you think you're going?  


***

ARCHAGENT: you got a lotta nerve comin here  
SEER: you're just fucking salty that you didnt get to do me in that one time, and now that I'm a fucking god you aint getting another chance to kill me  
ARCHAGENT: heh dont get cocky now kid  
ARCHAGENT: none o' this is over till the stupid frog croaks  
SEER: well speaking of the ultimate creation  
SEER: where'd you find out the Incipisphere's getting erased?  
ARCHAGENT: are you fucking dumb? It's in the book-  
SEER: you and I both fucking know it's not in the fucking book  
ARCHAGENT: oh, you finally actually read it  
ARCHAGENT: or did the Mage figure it out?  
ARCHAGENT: either way, what makes ya think I'm just gonna tell ya everythin'?  
ARCHAGENT: just cause yer a seer doesnt mean every lil' piece of info is gonna fall right into your lap  
ARCHAGENT: no, see, this is the kind o' thing you've got to EARN  
ARCHAGENT: catch  
SEER: what the hell's that supposed to - hey, this is the queen's ring!  
ARCHAGENT: she wants you to have it  
ARCHAGENT: yer stupid little crew's gonna need it an' you coming here saves me time havin to plant it on ya  
SEER: I don't care about this! I just want to know where you got your info!  
SEER: What the hell do you mean by earning it  
SEER: I don't have to play your fucking games  
SEER: tell me the truth right now or i'll -  
ARCHAGENT: kill me? Like you said you would so many times?  
ARCHAGENT: you dont have to play my game seer  
ARCHAGENT: but you already are  
SEER: the fuck all does that mean -  
SEER: what the fuck!?  
SEER: was that skaia -  
ARCHAGENT: its starting  
ARCHAGENT: better get going seer, you've only got 24 hours now

***

MT: It's time to gear up, my friends.  
MT: Today, we gods will kill a king.  
HK: And it's going to be totally awesome.  


***

MAGE: All that's left now is lighting up the Forge.  
MAGE: MT, the ring, if you will?  
MAGE: Thank you. We need to kill the Queen now -  
SEER: No, we don't  
SEER: here. Jack gave it to me when I last went to see him  
MAID: when was this exactly?  
MAGE: Immediately before the reckoning.  
MAGE: No, wait, don't.  
MAGE: He was acting on something I had pointed out to him. I dare say his going to Jack worked out for the better.  
BARD: And what'd you point out to him?  
MAGE: That there was no way for the Black Queen and Jack Noir to learn what supposedly motivated their little scheme from the book DG said he'd stolen from me.  
MAGE: And I checked with my sprite and denizen both. That information should not be available to them at all.  
MAID: So where'd they learn the info...?  
QUEEN: I daresay this is the first set of Dreamers smart enough to question the information handed to them, no, Jack?  
ARCHAGENT: Almost a shame they didn't figure it out sooner, my Queen.  
QUEEN: Ah!  
QUEEN: How bold of you, Mage of Space, but this is not the first time you've thought of striking me as soon as I appeared.  
QUEEN: You may have bested the Black King of this session, but you will need the experience of a million sessions before you can even lay a hand on ME, and I can assure you that you have nowhere near that many under your belt.  
QUEEN: Now, put my ring in the Forge, Mage, or I shall ensure a heroic death for all of you right now.  
BARD: It's not going to work, you know.  
QUEEN: What?  
BARD: this plan of yours isn't going to work.  
QUEEN: And why is that?  
QUEEN: Hah! Speak only when you are ready, insolent child.  
QUEEN: Now then...Mage, the ring. Do it now.  
BARD: HK, don't do it -  
MAGE: I...I will do as she says.  
MAGE: We do still have a plan, after all.  


***

QUEEN: Another session, another universe.  
QUEEN: Come, Jack, our latest reward awaits.  
BARD: Not another step.  
BARD: You see them, don't you?  
QUEEN: ...ah, yes, the signature of a Dreamer of Time.  
QUEEN: What makes you believe that even a single one of your corpses can hurt me?  
BARD: we don't have to hurt you  
ARCHAGENT: fuck, the door!  
QUEEN: No! I will not be trapped here!  
MAID: Wait, DG!  
SEER: we don't have to leave it closed before wrecking it!  
BARD: The fu - oh heck, DG...  
MAGE: Finish it, MT. If he opens that door and the Queen crosses through...!  
BARD: No I can't do this to him -  
MAID: MT! I can't hold - she's making a run for it! Destroy the door now!  
QUEEN: My thanks, Seer.  
SEER: ah fuck,  



End file.
